tubechallenge.com

I thought it was a decent set- with plenty of route options available. Also, everything except DLR was represented!

Came out on a whim after waking up at 11am and deciding I needed some exercise this weekend! Unfortunately, I am out of practice as my last-place time shows.

Route timings were:
1211 Clapham Junction - Balham 1216
1219 Balham - Stockwell 1226
1227 Stockwell - Brixton 1229
Run
1237(9) Loughborough Junction - Streatham 1250
1254? Streatham - Tulse Hill 1258
1315 Tulse Hill - Queen's Road Peckham 1326
1332 Queen's Road Peckham - Canada Water 1338
1342? Canada Water - Waterloo ?
1354 Waterloo - Clapham Junction 1401
1402(4) Clapham Junction - Kew Bridge 1420
Run
1426 Gunnersbury - Richmond 1434
1447 Richmond - Clapham Junction 1454
1459 Clapham Junction - Clapham High St 1506
1510 Clapham North - Kennington 1515
1518 Kennington - Waterloo
1539 (Missed the 1527 to Lee due to stupidity) Waterloo East - Grove Park 1556?
1605 261 Bus to Lee to see both the following:

1631 Lee - Mottingham 1633

On hindsight, running back up to Hither Green to catch the next train through would probably have saved me another couple of minutes, and not messing up the connection at Waterloo East could possibly have saved me another 30 minutes...

Just had a quick play on JP at the route I would have taken had I competed (without having read OrangeOne's writeup first) - 4:12, not the quickest by any means and of course a theory route but not too shabby, I don't think.

Coincidentally as far as Loughborough Jn it's exactly the same route as Orange's - after that I lost my way somewhat by going up to Elephant & castle and having a long wait there rather than running to Denmark Hill.

The London Overground stretch between Clapham High Street and Denmark Hill is over two miles long, and is approximately trisected by Brixton station and Loughborough Junction station. The distance between Clapham High Street and Brixton at about a mile is slightly longer than the distance from Brixton to Loughborough Junction or from Loughborough Junction to Denmark Hill which both clock in at 0.7 miles.

The run from Loughborough Junction to Denmark Hill is both more confusing and more scenic as you pass through Ruskin Park but also have to contend with a number of backstreets. Brixton to Loughborough Junction is easier, as it's a straight road. Clapham High Street to Brixton is of course not done, because it's faster to head via Stockwell in any case.

I suspect that what gave me the edge in this challenge were my bus maps - having a topological view of the rail lines enabled me to tidy up my less satisfactory connections a little (Streatham Common to Streatham, Loughborough Junction to Denmark Hill, Lee to Hither Green). They've come in handy in past rounds (I've done King's Cross to Caledonian Road, Canary Wharf to Mile End, and High Street Kensington to Knightsbridge all by bus).

Clapham Junction Streatham Common Streatham (walk) (via Loughborough Junction to) Elephant & Castle (via Stockwell and Clapham South to) Balham Clapham Junction (again) (via Wandsworth Road and Queens Road Peckham to) Canada Water (via Bermondsey to) Waterloo (through Clapham Junction again again, and via Barnes to) Richmond (via Kew Gardens to) Hammersmith South Kensington (Picc) Embankment Charing Cross (walk) (via Waterloo East and Hither Green to) Grove Park Hither Green Lee (run, because of cancelled train) Mottingham

A slow start while I worked out where everything was. I knew the best route would be to do Barnes and Kew Gardens first, but couldn't be bothered to fight the rugby crowd, so looked for the first train going anywhere else helpful and plumped for one to Streatham Common. No good connection back to Streatham so decided to walk.

Up to E&C, then down to Balham, having nearly decided to double back at Clapham South to then db to Wandsworth Road. Fortunately I didn't because I would have missed Balham (LU) entirely. Off to CLJ for the second time, then the slooooooooooooow LO ride to Canada Water. Why are LO trains so unbelievably slow?

Back along the Jubilee to Waterloo, then not a long wait for a stopping train through CLJ(3) to Barnes and Richmond. I just missed a District line train at Richmond so had to wait 9 minutes for the next one but it didn't really matter. When I got to Hammersmith, a Picc was in the opposite platform so decided to try it out and see how the route to South Ken was. Not sure if I gained a train, but good experience for the future. And so along to Embankment.

Plenty of time for my planned connection out of Charing Cross, so wandered up there. Got a fast train stopping at Waterloo East, Hither Green and Grove Park - it's like a train chartered specifically for this challenge. At Hither Green I saw GU and the Raven sneaking off towards the Lee platform, then at Grove Park I met up with the RailRiders (who had already finished) and they joined me on the ride back to Hither Green.

And then the fun with the cancelled trains happened - see earlier post. Saw Edgemaster at Lee, and he saved me from another cancelled train and we headed off to Mottingham. The cancelled trains cost me 20 minutes, so I'd still have been last, just less last.

Here's a thing: after getting on the LO out of CLJ, I had everything planned to the finish. I didn't once check the map after that and it all went exactly as planned until the very last train.

I've just got a mystery £1.90 refund on my Oyster card. This is particularly odd as I was using a weekly Z1-4 Travelcard on it for the challenge (without being charged any extra, according to the website), and the one journey on it since was trivial and correctly charged.

Times are now up on the leader board on Top Times