First time on a banked velodrome
2025-08-01
King County Metro was filming a campaign called "Where to?" — celebrating the 1.8 million weekly trips Metro connects to things worth doing: races, concerts, polar plunges, a first date. One of the locations was the Jerry Baker Velodrome at Marymoor Park, one of the rare outdoor velodromes in the country.
They needed riders. I said yes.
What I didn't fully understand
A banked velodrome is not like a regular bike path. The track is steeply angled — built so that riders at speed don't slide down the banking. The physics work if you're going fast enough. If you're not going fast enough, you slide down the banking. The first few laps I was very aware of this.
The pros on set were generous with tips. "Commit to the speed." "Don't look at the banking." "Trust the track." By hour two I was mostly trusting the track. By hour three I was having a genuinely good time.
Three hours of circles
Filming is a lot of waiting punctuated by short bursts of doing the thing. I rode the same section of track probably 40 times. I talked to the other riders between takes — a mix of actual velodrome racers, people who commute by bike, and a few people like me who were getting back into it.
Getting back into biking (iykyk). The velodrome was one of the first times I'd really pushed it since my accident. Committing to speed on a steeply banked track was not the obvious re-entry point, but it turned out to be the right one.
The ad
The campaign ran on buses, billboards, and social media across King County. You can see a glimmer of me at 21 seconds. I've watched it several times trying to find a better angle. There isn't one, but I'm there.