tubechallenge.com

Photos will be soon.Surfice to say we had an awful lot of people turn up including some new people trying out their first challenge.

The starting station drawn out of the hat was Angel so it was quite a reasonable station.

All the teams sat down to plan their routes mine was actually done quite quickly we decided what we were going to do because their were only 2 platforms it was easy to ensure no one went before 13.00 the northbound people went at 13.00.49 the southbound 13.03.14 this turn out to be useful to us later on.

My route we decided to head southbound and got off at bank and switched to the central line westbound to Chancery Lane a quick blasting run down to farringdon was made Garion was very exhausted by this run i found really easy.The train at farringdon was an H&C with a circle 3 mins behind so we knew how long for the run at Aldgate after this we headed down to Sloane square and down to Vauxhall via Victoria.We saw at this point quite a few other challengers as well.

A 4 min wait for the train into Waterloo our longest wait of the day we then got Jubilee to London bridge where we met Tangy whom was doing a similar route and transfered Southbound Northern Line to Elephant & Castle andjust made a departing Bakerloo by the skin of our teeth.

Change of lines at Waterloo up to Euston where we thought we might have a lucky train back to warren street but it was out of service so i ran and waited for garion to catch up at just outside euston Square after he saw Hakan going in other direction we still beat tangy whom waited for the next train to warren Street and ran from there.Decided to take the Hammersmith train instead of the circle 1 min earlier the only time we missed a train deliberately to Paddington.

We were on the home stretch now with just 2 changes left good change at Oxford circus where we met Al and his team and we all ran to bayswater despite getting the close attentions of dog trying to bite us a slight cock up at Earls Court where Starkey stairs were blocked off so had to go down the other entrance.At this point we met with joy54 and Dudey on the pic as well we knew Tangy was finishing at Russell Square and we were Kings cross 1 stop later but we had 2m25s later start this proved to be useful as we just managed it by 16s coming into Kings Cross.

Best team name i cant get a word in Edgewares Martin Hazel

1st place Andi James & Garion Allen 2h52m59s
2nd Place Martin hazel 2h53m15s
3rd place tie Kevin&Ryan Brown/Richard Scard/Martina 2h53m25s

palkanetoijala31 wrote: My route we decided to head southbound and got off at bank and switched to the central line westbound to Chancery Lane a quick blasting run down to farringdon was made Garion was very exhausted by this run i found really easy.

What I didnt tell you or the others that I think I pulled a muscle somewhere during that run because when we got to Aldgate, I was in agony but still carried on.

I've done a write up of our route and day, I should probably expand it a bit to give more of a newbie's view, but that can wait. It's over on my blog.
http://ge.pythonmoo.co.uk/blog/2009/05/ ... ing-tubes/

And the route:

Why the bloodstains?

I teamed up with joy54 and Dudey for this. We started Southbound, with the majority, as far as Moorgate, where we changed for a H&C Westbound. Off at Paddington, where a recalcitrant ticket barrier caused a bit of a jam, then onto the Bakerloo Southbound. Fine until Charing Cross, where we sat for a bit due to congestion. We realised at this point that there were two other teams doing the same route as us, so we decided to try and get a bit of an advantage, and alighted at Waterloo.

Jubilee to London Bridge, Northern to E&C, we just missed a Bakerloo, which we knew would cost us. Alighting at Waterloo for a second time, we went upstairs to the NR platforms. Problems here, as all the trains were delayed so we didn't know which would leave first, and Dudey had run on ahead. By the time joy54 and I found him, he was on a train with the doors shut. We then had to find the next departure for Vauxhall, which we did, and found ourselves back with greatkingrat, Crunchy Saviour and Adham, who we had left behind on the Southbound Bakerloo.

Northbound Vic to Victoria, and we still lived in hope of catching up with Dudey on the double back. This was short lived, however, as we saw him on an Eastbound train while we were still waiting for a Westbound.

Off to Sloane Square, then back to Aldgate as the first train was a circle. joy54 had warned me that the subway was now closed and you could legitimately cross the road, but he didn't tell me that the entrance on the same side of the road had closed, and you now have to cross over! No train missed though, and apparently joy54 had passed Dudey on the run going the other way.

H&C from Aldgate East to Liverpool St, then down to the Central line. As always, I was the slowest runner, and although they tried to hold the doors it was in vain, so I had to watch my other partner go off without me. greatkingrat kept me company, however, as he had also missed the train. I then found out that Dudey was on it, so one of us had caught up with him!

On the Central we were joined by Andi and Garion, and we collectively ran from Queensway to Bayswater, where I finally met up with my team mates on a Wimbleware. Down to Earls Court, and then an exciting Piccadilly line ride where we waited to see if Tangy or Andy and Garion would win. The two teams with the same route as us decided to do the Russell Square - Goodge Street run, whilst we decided to stay on to KXSP, so we saw Tangy lose out by seconds. No time for commiserations / congratulations however, as we were off to the Vic S/B to Warren St, then Northern to Goodge St where we finished just outside the 3 hour mark. A PB for me, although not for my team mates. We later found we had beaten the runners, so the right choice was made there.

A fun day on Friday. Ric Mansworth and I took 15 minutes or so off our previous effort, so should be contenders next year! At least we won the quiz tho', with much help from Mrs Tube Guru. Thanks Andi and others for organising.

A thought - which I'm sure has been had before. Would there be merit in having to finish at a particular station as well as starting at one?

Perry Vale wrote:A fun day on Friday. Ric Mansworth and I took 15 minutes or so off our previous effort, so should be contenders next year! At least we won the quiz tho', with much help from Mrs Tube Guru. Thanks Andi and others for organising.

A thought - which I'm sure has been had before. Would there be merit in having to finish at a particular station as well as starting at one?

Surely if u have a finishing station as well fixed it would cut down the many possible routes.?

There perhaps maybe merit in having a fixed finishing station but the starting station can be your choice.

-So meet up at OC at 12.00
-Finishing station drawn out of hat
-All head to respective starting stations
-Travel around all Z1 stations finishing at the station drawn

??

Does anyone have any more pictures of the day/evening? So far there are a few from the Dustmasker on Facebook and that's all I've seen.

Give me some more time to do my pictures and i put them up.

Time to "do" your pictures? Are you drawing them or something?

Root wrote:Time to "do" your pictures? Are you drawing them or something?

i have to go and develop them at boots or something its been only 2 days be patient.

Sorry, I forgot that some people still use film-based cameras. Lol.

joy54 wrote:There perhaps maybe merit in having a fixed finishing station but the starting station can be your choice.

This could be quite fun; I presume that people would be told not to start until 1pm. However, the team arriving at the finishing station first may well not be the winner, if the second team had had to wait ages for their first train. So a bit of suspense ... but not very much.

But the route planning would be exactly the same task, though.

I like the idea of a fixed finishing station, simply because it becomes more of a race against other teams rather than a time trial. However my idea as to how to work it so that the winner at the finish would be clear would work a bit like the R15. What I mean is, at a pre-chosen meeting point (possibly outside Z1?) a random start station could be drawn as usual, but a finish station is then drawn out at which instant the race commences. By this I mean that the race includes the bit between getting from the meeting point to the start station. Any stations passed through on that initial journey don't count to your Z1 until you pass-through the start station.

Does that make any sense to anyone? IMO the current traditional meeting place wouldn't really be appropriate for this kind of start, but plenty of other places would be.