Seattle Oyster 2012 - 2nd Coed

Recap by Jen - Special thanks to Speedy Reedy Multisport, Angela and Josh for the help and all those who donated to the Arthritis Foundation to help us get clues!

         So call me crazy but I decided to sign up for 3 races for the same weekend.  Will and I, with my sister-in-law Catie, were scheduled to do the Seattle Oyster on Saturday morning and then my friend Josh and I were going to do the Seattle Scavenger Dash at noon on Saturday and then throw in a birthday dinner out on the town Saturday night with our friends followed by Will and I driving back to Portland Sunday morning to do the Portland Scavenger Dash.  This was our first try at racing in Seattle and I knew we would need a perfect race to finish the Oyster and get to the scavenger dash on time but why not try!  Let’s just say we didn’t have a perfect race but it just made it that much more of an adventure.

So I decided to take the day off on Friday from work and travel up to Seattle a day early to try to figure the city out before our big Seattle debut in the Seattle Oyster.  Plus I had to pick up our packet and clues at 3 in the afternoon so I was going to have to take at least a half day to get up there in time.  So I parked at Gas Works Park and rode my bike all over Seattle on Friday until I felt like I had a better feel for the land but boy is this city a lot more complex than Portland.  I picked up our clues and then headed back to Bellevue where I was staying at Catie’s.  Catie and I did some recon for the race Friday night while we waited up for Will who didn’t arrive in Seattle until almost midnight.

Again I had to keep the streak going so we left Catie’s at 5:30 am so we could be the first ones to the TA at Denny Park at 6 am.  We set up our stuff and then got breakfast and I showed Will what clues we had gotten for collecting donations and sponsor items.  Catie was pretty familiar with the area because she is a Husky, what can I say we all make bad decisions sometimes, so we were relying on her today and our maps for navigation.

At 8 am we started by solving a puzzle to get the first passport.  Once we had the first passport, it had 3 parts.  All on foot we had to 1) get 8 of 10 scavenger hunt items, go to a pool and 3) go to a gym and complete tasks there.  We did the scavenger hunt first and got that one punched.  Some of the things were hugging a tree, giving a stranger a piggyback ride,  and drawing a mustache on a teammate.



Stranger Piggyback



Tree huggers

 

Then we called Angela and had her look up the address of the gym while Catie used her phone to help locate the pool.  Once we found it we were off.  Both of them were about 1.5 miles out on lake union.  We got there and at the pool we had to find a certain rubber ducky in a very large pool.  We had to do this in other cities but this was by far the largest pool and there were a ton of ducks in it.  Catie was a champ and jumped right in  I worked around the edge and then Will realized that  people where holding the ducks in the middle of the pool so he jumped in too.  It took us a little while to find it but Catie finally did.  Nice job Catie!!! And then it was off to the gym.

At the gym we had to solve a weight stacking puzzle of moving weights from one side of the gym to another keeping them in a certain order without having some ever on top of the other and Will had made a key cheat sheet for this but I couldn’t figure out how to read it and when I asked him he couldn’t figure out how to read it either.  I threw it down and just used my brain and let me tell you that was way faster than trying to understand his reasoning.  We were done in no time and off back to the TA.

Passport 2 sent us on bike to 3 different locations.  1) Chipotle 2) Occidental Park and 3) Uwajimaya in the international district.  Catie said she knew where they were so we headed down Westlake toward downtown.  We hit the Chipotle first and completed the challenge quickly, the volunteer even said we were the fastest ones yet!!!  Then it was off to Occidental Park where we had to complete a sample SAT test with 80% accuracy.  We could not talk to each other but it was no problem.  I love tests.  We completed that in record time as well.  Next it was to Uwajimaya where we found out that we had to buy bags of fortune cookies, take the fortunes out and use them to spell out a word.  No problem we worked together to open them and then find all the letters we needed.  Once we got it we were back on the bikes and off back to the TA

Passport 3 sent us back out on foot to Belltown Cottage Park where we had to count stairs and use the answer to solve a puzzle with other trivia so I got Angela on the phone again to help.  Thank goodness she has kids and knows her magic school bus and Danny Tanner trivia.  Once we got the answer to that we had to run to the Sculpture park and use the answer to locate a certain sculpture.  I rode my bike through there yesterday so as soon as we knew which sculpture it was I immediately knew where it was.  The Eagle. Once we snapped our photo, it was back to the TA.

 

Passport 4 sent us back out on bike and this is where the shit hit the fan. We were out in front of the field at this point and we had to do two tasks.  One was to locate a statue that I rode past Friday so I knew exactly where it was and the second was to stand up paddleboard (SUP) on lake union.  I also knew where we were to put in because I saw it on my bike ride Friday.  So we headed out on Eastlake which is under heavy construction.  About 2 miles into the ride we were riding on some rough torn up road and I hit a section where the grated pavement was quite a drop from the nongrated pavement and as soon as I hit it I knew it was bad news. I almost immediately heard  PSSHHHH, oh sh**!!!  I popped my back tire.  I yelled at Will to stop and come help change my tire.  He came back and had the wheel off and tube changed in record time (Pete, you would have been proud).  Even so one team passed us as we changed the flat.  Okay that would be the worst thing today right?  Well not so quick.  We rode up the road a bit and got our photo of the statue. 

Right after the blowout and before the Crash!

 

We caught up to the team that past us at the statue and were feeling great when we took off for the SUP task.  We were riding along the bike path when I noticed we needed to take a left turn to get on the lower trail to get to the boat launch.  I stopped quick and Will stopped next to me and then I heard,, “Oh SH**!  The next thing I knew Catie was on the ground and she had run into Will.  Oh know are you okay Catie?  I can’t count the times I have almost crashed into the back of Will or Patty on our other races when we have to stop quick or turn suddenly but this looked bad.  Are you sure you are okay Catie?  She was a champ and got up and said she was fine.  Next we assessed the damage to the bikes.  Well Will’s bike was not good.  His derailleur was hanging off the bike on the ground and his wheel was bent.  Oh dear, not rideable.  Mine seemed okay, Catie’s wasn’t too bad still operational so now what.  I told Will that if we could just get to the SUP task maybe we could figure something out and call someone. I told him to just run with his bike there, it wasn’t too far a little less than a mile.  He was a champ and didn’t give up and said okay.  I road to the bottom of the hill and noticed that my chain was off so I had to fix that and then Catie came down and her chain was off too.  Wow what a mess.  So we got our chains back on and headed out to the SUP.  Catie and I got there as Will was running and I explained to Luann, the race director who just happened to be running that station what happened.  She said there was  mechanic back at the TA if we could somehow get there.  Too bad that was about 4 miles way.  I sent Will out on the SUP and Catie and I tried to think of what to do.  Catie started looking for bike rental shops near where we were and then she also put in calls to nearby friends that might be able to bring a spare bike for us.  Oh, Josh, he was coming downtown to meet me for the second race, which now I really didn’t think I was going to make because it started at noon and it was now 10:30 and we still had to somehow get this passport done and 2 more.  I called Josh and started to leave message on his voicemail when Will got back on the SUP so I handed him the phone and told him to finish leaving the message for Josh to throw his bike in his car and meet us at the TA.  Then Catie and I got on the SUP together where we did a great job paddling out and back.  She is a great swimmer and pulled us the whole way laying on the front of the board while I paddled on the back.  When we got back, Will had his derailleur zip tied to his frame and asked if I just wanted to throw in the towel.  What!!! No we could still do this.  I said that I would ride up ahead and see if I could find a bike shop or rental shop that might be able to help us.  We found a couple that were not too far away.  I told him to just keep running on the trail toward Fremont and I would come back and get him when I found something.  So I took off like a crazy woman, this seems to be a trend in these race, me acting like a crazy woman. I rode down the trail asking everyone, more like shouting as I rode, “Does anyone know where Speedy Reedy is, Speedy Reedy Speedy Reedy?!!!”  Finally someone directed me to behind the building I was at.  I looked around and didn’t see Catie, shoot was she with Will or did she go past me when I was looking for Speedy Reedy’s.  I went to grab my phone to call her and realized I never got it back from Will after the SUP.  Shoot I had no phone.  Okay, I ran into Speedy Reedy’s and asked if they had a bike we could rent.  They said no.  Shoot.  “Okay, here is my problem.  I am in a race and my husband has a major mechanical issue and we need either a new bike or someone who can fix it.”  I explained what was wrong and the mechanic at Speedy Reedy said the sweetest words I have ever heard, “I may be able to fix it if it his derailleur hanger and not the frame and if I have one in the back.”  Hope!  Okay, I am going to leave my stuff here and go get him, he is running with his bike right now.  Shoot, I didn’t know which trail he was running down, the high one along the road or low one along the water!  So again crazy woman and I started running back and forth from the high road to the low road looking for him.  When I finally saw him on the high road I waved him down and told him they may be able to fix it.  He was tired and not happy when I asked him for my phone so I could call Catie.  Then he informs me that he just left it at the water because he was worried about his bike. Oh just left it huh. Then he told me to run back and get it if I wanted it.  Okay okay, sorry, can I have your phone to call her.  He was quite a trooper running with his bike on his shoulders in his bike shoes.  He got his phone for me and I called Catie.  She was at the Fremont Bridge and said she would just wait for us there.  Okay sounds good. I told her that they may be able to fix it.  I then went back to the shop and sure enough the mechanic was working on his bike.  So he just broke the derailleur hanger.  It took about 20 minutes to fix and then it was time for the wheel.  That was not as easy of a fix.  The wheel was pretty wasted.  I told the mechanic we only needed to get 6-7 more miles out of it, if there was anything he could do.  He worked on it some more and sure enough got it trued enough to fit in the frame and spin.  It definitely was wobbly and they had to take off the back brakes to get it to spin but it just might get us through.  So thank you Speedy Reedy!!!!!  While the bike was getting fixed I called Luann back at the SUP station and asked her if she could bring my phone back with her to the TA when she was finished.  She said she saw it and could no problem.  We were back on the road again.  Whew, that was a nightmare.  Now let’s finish this thing.  We rode up to Freemont and met Catie and then headed back to the TA.  Catie’s bike had a derailleur issue and was not shifting right but if we could get to the TA the mechanic could fix it when we were out on the run.  She also had a sore knee and back but never complained and kept on trucking, what a stud.

Another team doing the sling shot

Passport 5 gave us a puzzle to solve to locate our next destination which was a park in Queen Anne on foot.  So we set out on the 4 mile run and it was up a HUGE hill.  This was a killer run.  I had to try to contact Josh because we were supposed to be starting the second race in 20 minutes and I knew I wouldn’t be there on time.  Shoot!  I didn’t have my phone with his number in it.  Will did not have his number in his phone either so I called a friend and left a voicemail for him to call Josh and have him call me on Will’s phone.  Then Will realized he had Josh’s number on his ipod so I called him as I ran up Queen Anne hill and told him the issues.  He said he went to our TA and had his bike if we needed it.  What a guy, thanks but I think we are okay now.  He said it was okay if I was late and still wanted to do the second race and would wait for me.  Okay, I told him I would be there ASAP.  When we got to the park we had to play hill billy horseshoes, tossing a toilet seat around a stake.  Will and Catie took turn tossing while I retrieved.  Catie got it on her second attempt!  Then it was the Merrell shoe sling shot.  Catie was the catcher, I held the slingshot and Will pulled it back.  I heard the volunteer say, “ oh, oh, no”  as Will pulled back the shoe and I knew there was a good chance I was going to get hit in the head but I trusted he could do it and he let it go and it flew into the air and only the slingshot hit me in the head and Catie caught it!  Nice we were out of there and the whole way back was downhill!!!!  Go Go Go.  We made good time back and when we got close to the TA we had to either run across Aurora (a very busy 4 lane divided highway) or run up 3 extra blocks uphill,  I looked at Will and immediately he knew what I was thinking, we have done enough of these races that we can anticipate each other’s moves.  He immediately said yes.  Then Catie realized what we were up to and was like, “no way, you guys are crazy.”  Will assured her we could do it.  So we waited a second for a break in the traffic and made a run for it.  We made it and after all we had been through cutting out just a few seconds can make a difference.  Back to the TA.

Flip cup

Passport 6, our last one.  We had to go on bike again out to Freemont and play a little beer pong and flip cup and get a photo with the troll.  Will noticed that we were in 3^rd place when we checked into the TA.  No way, how could that be?  Okay let’s go team!!!!  We set out on our beat up bodies and bikes (Will’s still didn’t have back brakes).  We got to the beer pong station and the second place team was still there.  We started playing and who would of guessed that we smoked the drinking game.  We left the beer pong task before the second place team and never looked back.  It was a race to the finish and we came in SECOND!!!  Wow,  no way after all the issues we faced!  We didn’t have long to savor the accomplishment because I had to jump on my bike immediately and meet Josh for round two.  It was now 12:25 and the Scavenger Dash started 25 minutes ago.  One team hug and I was back on my bike rushing to get to Pioneer Square to meet Josh. Will and Catie wished me luck, nice job team.  We will get them next year.    Lesson learned today, when life knocks you down and keeps beating on you, you have to get up dust yourself off and then come back with, "Is that all you've got BITCH?"  I know I should of taken more pics to document this crazy adventure but in the excitement of the race I forgot to keep snapping pics.  Laugh in the face of adversity and let the tears flow in the joy of victory!  Well second felt like a victory today anyway. 

Thanks to the Oyster for the sponsorship and opportunity to do these crazy adventures!!! 

Will had to accept our award as I was racing with Josh and Catie had to go take care of baby G.