Pacific Northwest - Anybody doing the Seattle Century?

Have any of you done it in the past? Curious to see if this is worth doing, worthwhile routes, etc.

Thanks for any feedback.

I did it last year and came away un-impressed. They did a poor job marking out the route and there were a few areas which you rode with alot of traffic on shoulderless routes, particulary over in the Factoria area. Most of the ride is on the Burke-Gilman/Sammamish River Trails which get congested with walkers/runners. Needless to say I won't be riding it this year again or ever.

It's also expensive vs. other organized rides.

Though the organizers suggest it's a "benefit," I really believe it's a commercial venture run by a sports promotion firm out of Oregon. I don't think the proceeds of the ride go to any bike groups; there is a just a check-off form in case you want to donate extra money to bikeworks.

I've emailed the organizers a couple of times asking them to be clearer about the "benefit" part of this ride and they don't answer.

I think it's a shabby thing to do.

I'd stay away.

I have not done this ride but I remember reading other opinions on this ride from Cascade's boards =>

http://cascade.org/Community/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=11600

Kent Peterson (who I think is now manager of BikeWorks) has written a post on his blog about the Seattle Century, and about his efforts to make sure the route is better marked this year.

He also added some clarifying comments about the money that BikeWorks sees from this event (see the comments field).

http://kentsbike.blogspot.com/2009/07/marking-seattle-century-course.html

Kent is a much more credible resource than I am; I'd consider Kent's comments a good endorsement of the ride.