Overall Stats: 47.6 miles, 2310pts., 14.3hrs, 48.5 pts/mi, 3.3 mph, 161 pts/hr
Loop Stats and maps of route:
Loop1: 1070 pts, 22.5 mi, 4pm to 9:03pm (5:03), 47.6 pts/mi, 4.5 mph, 212 pts/hr http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=320670
Loop 2: 1240 pts, 25.1 mi., 10:03pm to 7:19am (9:16), 49.4 pts./mi, 2.7 mph, 134 pts/hr http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=322259
Heidi and I continued our strategy for the Night & Day events and planned a 5-hr first loop carrying only a 32 oz water bottle and a few energy bars and candy in a fanny pack. We ran most of the loop, walking only the uphills. Because of the heat, we needed to fill the water bottle often. Luckily, we always managed to find a water source (fountain, bathroom sink, community garden watering hose, etc.) to fill our water bottle when we needed it. The loop went smoothly (22.5 mi) and we arrived only 3 minutes behind schedule. We arrived back to the event center and after finding our gear, ate dinner in the park. (sandwiches). The break was exactly the hour planned and we started the night loop. Because of the heat, we didn't need the usual warm clothing, so we just continued with the fanny pack which saved me from having sore shoulders at the end of the event. We walked the entire second loop (25.1 mi.) and arrived about 20-30 min. earlier than expected.
Navigationally, things went almost exactly as planned at this event which was a first. The main decision needed in the beginning was trying to figure out how to get the park check points that were not open all night and if it was worth it to go for the big pointers north and south of the Ballard locks. We decided that it was not worth going to the Ballard check points as there would be too much out and back if we had to use the Ballard bridge (as opposed to the locks) to get across the Ship Canal. And there was no way we were going to get to the locks before 9pm and have it even remotely fit into our overall strategy. I think was a good decision because team World Turns East tried this strategy and it was disastrous for them. We had decided before the event that we were going to visit South Seattle and the Industrial district in the first loop so that we wouldn't have to be there in the middle of the night (North Seattle doesn't seem so dangerous at night). So we did a counter clockwise loop starting with the Industrial area and finishing with the timed park controls to the northeast of the event center. On the second loop, we started along the east side of Lake Union, into the U-district and finishing up in Wallingford, Queen Anne, and downtown. We planned to be downtown in the early morning since we didn't want to be there at night but yet the traffic would still be light in the morning. We ended up getting all the check points on the South Seattle map except (2) 10-pointers and the 40-pointer at Green Lake. Looking at the statistics, this was the longest distance covered by us at a Night & Day event, surpassing the our previous best at last year's event by 4 miles. Also, the points per mile was the highest ever. This means that we either designed a very efficient route or the checkpoints were closer on average to the event center. I don't know why but I still find it interesting that the total miles and points per mile have been so similar at Night & Day events. In the overall stats, they were farther off than they have been before (0.9) but if you just compared total miles to the points per mile on the first loop, they only differed by 0.002.
Bill Cusworth