March R15

[mps247]

Certainly - the starting station is Earl's Court, so see you all outside the usual entrance (i.e. the McDonald's one, nearest the front of an Upminster train) at 12:45...

If you are traveling to Earl's Court by tube, follow signs for the Earl's Court Road exit (not Warwick Road). Upon exiting, if you see the Earl's Court exhibition hall in front of you, and are in the middle of a residential street, you've gone the wrong way!

[dudey]

Good, i think 8 people is good enough number to go ahead. Plus the 28th wouldn't be so good for me due some strenuous activity the day before. Methinks this is a good opportunity to pick up some R15 Championship points with a lot of the regular participants DNS'ing.

I shall see all of you at Earl's Court!

PS. Just to double check, Matt, i take it you eliminated the inaccesable stations on the victoria and jubilee lines?

[tangy]

Blooming Victoria Line closure. No NLL (GOBLIN) either so looks like it's into Liverpool Street for me...

Not the best station to get to Earl's Court from!

[jbom1]

Looks like Zoe and I will need to head off somewhere immediately after the challenge - is there a number we can text our finishing time to?

[Soup Dragon]

Bugger.... I'm now coming but was going to ask for London Bridge as the starting station. Earls Court will be a bit tricky for me. I'm aiming to park at East Dulwich then catch the first train to London Bridge (only takes 12 mins). When the challenge has finished it's back to East Dulwich, pick up Ping Pon from football and heading up to Drayton Manor. I will try and get to EC but can't guarantee that I'll make it in time. If I don't then start without me.

Edit: If OK with everyone else and I am late you can call me as you start your watches and I'll do the same.

[RichieG]

Thought I might mention that I've got an added little challenge of my own going on on Saturday too...

The college that I work at are doing a daytrip to London tomorrow, and I've mentioned to a couple of the staff going and a couple of students that I'm going myself on Saturday and they've said that they're going to try and leave something for me to find at a couple of Underground stations, the names and locations of which I will find out tomorrow when they text me!

Could add a bit of interest for me at least...

[Going Underground]

Looks like Zoe and I will need to head off somewhere immediately after the challenge - is there a number we can text our finishing time to?

PM just sent

[Soup Dragon]

Bugger.... I'm now coming but was going to ask for London Bridge as the starting station. Earls Court will be a bit tricky for me. I'm aiming to park at East Dulwich then catch the first train to London Bridge (only takes 12 mins). When the challenge has finished it's back to East Dulwich, pick up Ping Pon from football and heading up to Drayton Manor. I will try and get to EC but can't guarantee that I'll make it in time. If I don't then start without me.

Edit: If OK with everyone else and I am late you can call me as you start your watches and I'll do the same.

Antony - just up the road from East Dulwich (0.6mi) is Denmark Hill station, from which trains run to Victoria (xx01, xx25, xx31, xx55), also taking 12 minutes. The 1131 should give you enough time to get to Earl's Court for 12pm, so perhaps driving up there (if there's parking there - despite previously living near there I can't remember if it's possible or not), or leaving 10-15 mins to walk up (or take any one of 4 buses) would be better than going via London Bridge...?

Good shout... I will park near Dulwich Hamlet FC and walk to Denmark Hill looks to be 1/2 mile walk.

[Going Underground]

This is a challenge for me just to get to the start...

Plan A) Hatton Cross Hammersmith Earls Court, no can do Hatton Cross closed...
B) Feltham Richmond Earls Court, no can do District suspended between Richmond - Turnham Green
C) Feltham Clapham Junction West Brompton Earls Court, that will work

[jbom1]

Yes, Zoe and I really did take 4:16:56 to complete this.

The tone for the day was set by our very first change, where we saw a train pulling away and then waited something like 20 minutes. Better luck at Baker Street, where we had a quick change onto the Jubilee. After that, the best way of recovering time would have been both to have known the time of the Thameslink from West Hampstead to Kentish Town (we didn't) and caught it (we'd have missed it by a couple of minutes or so anyway); this might have at least brought us in just under 4 hours. We had to settle for a decent Underground-Overground (Wombling free) connection instead. A novel run (walk, actually) saw us into a station where the only way down to platform level was a 96-stair spiral staircase. We had an almost immediate connection onto the anticlockwise Circle at Westminster, round to Aldgate and Liverpool Street. The afternoon ended with accidentally exiting the system when trying to change trains, followed by letting a severely packed train go before enduring an absurdly slow crawl up the Piccadilly Line to Caledonian Road.

By the way, why on Earth was Turnham Green - Richmond out of action on the day of a Rugby international? Lots of confused fans unsure how to get anywhere near Twickenham.

Our actual route was: Earl's Court - Hammersmith (D & P) - Hammersmith (H & C) [where we lost about 19 minutes] - Paddington (H & C) - Paddington (D, C & B) - Maida Vale - Baker Street - Jubilee passing through Finchley Road - West Hampstead - West Hampstead (LO) [Thameslink would have been ideal] - Camden Road - Camden Town - Kentish Town - passing through Goodge Street - Waterloo - Elephant & Castle - Embankment - Westminster - Circle passing through Aldgate - Liverpool Street - Central passing though Marble Arch - Shepherd's Bush - Notting Hill Gate - South Kensington - Piccadilly passing [very slowly] through Hyde Park Corner and Russell Square - Caledonian Road.

[Going Underground]

Well that was an interesting day

It was good to meet mps247 for the first time and apologies for the confusion at the pub afterwards, we eventually gave up and walked to The Angel in the Fields and finally managed to get on the dartboard in the corner at about 7pm..

I teamed up with Al and a after a quick glance we decided to knock off all the Piccadilly line stations.. Down at the platform we changed our minds a Ken Oly was due at 12:11 and then a 12:15 overground from Ken Oly to Shepherds Bush..
The doors closed pretty much on time but them opened and we were delayed just stopping at Ken Oly as the Overground pulled away
So a run down the road for a bus that sat in traffic most of the way to Shepherds Bush and it must have been nearly 40mins before we crossed off our 2nd station..

We seemed to spend most of this underground challenge overground either running or on buses and we had no definite route until we about 1 1/2 hours in and even then we had to change it as we had forgotten about Westminster

Al's ticket was playing up all day which cost us at least 3 trains during the day and another bizzare coincidence (We saw the girl who auditioned us from eggheads on CiN day you may recall) was when running from White City Wood Lane about 50yards from the station an H & C went across the bridge and somehow I put on the afterburners got through the barriers up the stairs and just managed to get in and hold the door for a few seconds. I turned around and Celine from work was in the carriage and she has said to me and Antony that she is very keen to do a challenge and almsot came on Red Nose day.....

Apart from the missed trains due to Al's ticket we had reasonable luck for a while until coming out of Caledonian Road to catch a 393 to Kentish Town... One was coming and just truning the corner so we tried to chase it uphill for nearly 400 yards to the next bus stop but this one road in London with NO traffic...... We had no chance and had a wait for the next one of over 15 minutes..... We eventually finished at E & C in around 3hrs 36mins........

Matt, would you be kind enough to publish all the times please when you have a mo....

[RichieG]

For me, it started well... and by that I mean it started. I opted for the insensible approach of working out what stations were requred, where they were, and how one might be able to go between them. My route wasn't too bad, the main problem that I had was that after a ciyoke if changes I really couldn't be bothered to run anymore...

I started off at Earls Court (0:00:00) with the initial aim of getting the District Line to Notting Hill Gate. After several minutes with no District train approaching, I gave up on the idea, took a Circle to Gloucester Road and changed to another Circle to get to NHG. I alighted at White City, having passed through Shepherds Bush (0:32:02 - shows how long I was waiting at EC!) and prepared myself for the first run of the day to get to Wood Lane. Having just missed an Eastbound train, and feeling a little bit disheartened that I had spent half an hour already and wasn't actually anywhere, I persevered, and alighted at Royal Oak. I knew that a run was possible from here and Warwick Avenue, but as I was about to find out, it wasn't an easy one if you didn't know the way. I didn't. And got lost. All I can say is I'm actually quite glad that my mobile phone has got GPS on it! Making my way now to Warwick Avenue, I took the short hop up to Maida Vale (1:09:03 - again, it shows how long I took!) and continued back into Paddington where another run awaited me to get to Paddington H&C (I wasn't paying attention when I was planning the route and thought that it was Padd B/C/D) where I spent far too long waiting for an Eastbound train to get in (1:28:01).

To Baker Street next, where I took the Metropolitan up to Finchley Road (1:46:16) to return on the Jubilee as far as Bond Street for a short hop to Marble Arch (2:03:00), back to Bond Street to continue down to Green Park to pop down to Hyde Park Corner (2:15:04) and continued on the (rather packed!) Picadilly to Caledonian Road (2:37:08) taking Russell Square (2:31:38) en route. My original idea based soley on the map was to take the Overground to Kentish Town West, but I decided that it would probably be much easier to return to Kings Cross St Pancras to take the Northern to Kentish Town (2:53:29). I was quite lucky in that both the Northern Line trains I took were the correct ones; not only was the one from KXSP the correct one up, but also the return service was a Charing Cross branch service that also took me through Goodge Street (3:05:37). Initially, I had intended to take it right down to Kennington, to return on the Bank Branch, but it was while going down here that I realised that I had forgotton Westminster in my plans, so changed at Charing Cross for a short skip (no more hops please) to Westminster (3:14:56) and returned to Charing Cross to take the Bakerloo line to Elephant and Castle (3:25:42).

My initial idea was to change at Bank's Northern to Monument's Circle for Aldgate to finish at Liverpool Street, but realised it would me much more sensible to change to the Central Line to Liverpool Street (3:38:36) then after quite a long wait was on a Metropolitan service to finish at Aldgate with a time of just ever so slightly under 3:50:00 - better than my December attempt!!!

So here come the 'ifs'... If I had started quicker, or not spent so much time at Earl's Court (I did at one point hide behind a pillar when I realised that the late starters were on the other platform!) before deciding to get a Circle Line... or if I had run that little bit quicker between White City and Wood Lane (I saw a train on the bridge approaching the station as I approached it)... or if I had read the list of stations properly or didn't get lost between Royal Oak and Warwick Avenue... or if after that I had actually decided to carry on running instead of a slow jog... then I might have got a fairly decent time as I think this route worked quite well for these stations!

[al]

Al's ticket was playing up all day

I need to find a way to stop my ticket corrupting - this is the second challenge where I have suffered from this. Although the route was maybe a bit unusual, we would have been much nearer 3 hours if we hadn't continually missed trains waiting for a LU attendant to saunter over and open the gate for me.

Apart from that, our Overground Underground challenge was very enjoyable (thanks to GU for accompanying me in the first cross-Brown teaming) - I am determined to achieve a R15 that I am at least mostly happy with at some point.

When's the next one...?

[Soup Dragon]

The result was as follows:
1. 2:50:40 Peter Smyth
2. 3:05:11 Matt Nunn & Steve Karahan
3. 3:10:39 Antony & Jamie Brown
4. 3:21:26 Hassan Chagani (MPS 247)
5. 3:22:49 Martin Hazel
6. 3:34:47 Al & Kevin Brown
7. 3:50:ish Richie Graham
8. 4:16:56 John & Zoey Mitchell

Myself & Jamie were very pleased with 3rd place given the 17 minute head start given to the rest of the field. It goes to show that a bit of time spent planning the route pays dividends. That said we had an 11 minute wai for the H&C so we could have easily been under 3 hours with a bit more luck. The final round of the R15 will be the DOUBLE POINTER around Z1 Day, so still all to play for!

[mps247]

It was good to meet you all. Sorry, I didn't actually introduce myself - I'm Hassan. It was a shame I had to dash off soon after I arrived at the Horse & Groom, but I had to be in South Kensington at quarter-past-five. No matter - hopefully next time I will be able to relax at the pub for a bit longer .

So, here's what happened to me on my first challenge:

At Earl's Court (0:00:00), when the timer started I realised I had forgotten to bring a pen! A quick run to the newsagent in the station solved that problem, and I quickly circled all the stations on the map. It was either Hyde Park Corner or Westminster first. As I ran down to the Eastbound platforms I saw a District line waiting. Without thinking I took it towards Westminster (0:15:11) and changed at Embankment, where I was completely out of place for the change to the Bakerloo line. By the time I managed to get through the crowds, a Southbound Bakerloo line train was at the station, and I just caught it! Changed at Elephant & Castle (0:28:18) for the Northbound Northern line to Bank. Ran to Monument and caught the Circle line Eastbound to Aldgate (0:43:13) and Liverpool Street (0:45:11). Got off at Liverpool Street and took the Metropolitan line Westbound to Finchley Road (1:03:13).

Up the stairs, across and down again, and I just missed the Metropolitan line train going back into the city. I was tempted to jump on the Jubilee line to Baker Street, but the next Metropolitan train was in a minute, so I decided to wait. At Baker Street, I took the Bakerloo line Westbound to Maida Vale (1:30:39), and a beautiful cross-platform change to the Eastbound service saw me back in Paddington (Bakerloo, Circle & Disrict) for a run to Paddington (Hammersmith & City), where I just missed a Westbound train! Next train was "within 11 minutes"! I was going to change at Wood Lane and run to White City for the Central line, but a quick change of plan saw me take an Eastbound train instead from Paddington (Hammersmith & City (1:45:45) to Edgware Road, where I ran to the bus stop and caught the number 16 to Marble Arch. From Marble Arch (1:59:47) I took the Westbound Central line to Shepherd's Bush (2:08:24), followed by another beautiful cross-platform change to go back into zone 1. A change at Tottenham Court Road for the Northbound Northern line saw me into Goodge Street (2:27:27). I realised I was on the Edgware branch, so decided to get off at Euston - this was a bad idea! I should have changed at Camden Town. I got another Northbound Northern line train to Kentish Town (2:40:00).

Like Richie, I was going to run to Kentish Town West and take the Overground to Caledonian Road & Barnsbury, but after realising that Caledonian Road isn't that close to Caledonian Road & Barnsbury, I thought it would be better to take the Northern line to King's Cross St. Pancras. I changed onto a Northbound Piccadilly line to Caledonian Road (2:57:18). I then got on a packed Southbound Piccadilly line train (thanking the stars for the Victoria line's existence on other days!) to Russell Square (3:08:38), and then finishing in Hyde Park Corner (3:21:26). Three hours is enough time to spend on the tube, and I was sick of it, so I decided to take a combination of buses to Great Portland Street instead!

I think, had I taken the Piccadilly line to Hyde Park Corner, and then a bus to Victoria, I would have been a bit quicker. I also should have done Caledonian Road and Kentish Town first before Finchley Road. Actually, I should have finished at Finchley Road.

The highlight of my day came during my journey back from the pub. Two guys asked me what the train's destination was. "There isn't one," I had to answer, "It goes around in a circle." It turns out that they wanted to go to Shepherd's Bush Market, and had got on the wrong train at Edgware Road. It's an easy enough mistake to make, but I wonder how much confusion will be brought about once the Circle line becomes a teacup.