tubechallenge.com

Hi all
Wifey and I are thinking of having a go at the full challenge but not racing just walking speed.
I have ordered a large map and would really like to pick everyone's brains as to the "easiest" way to achieve all of the stations in one day. The reason I ask is we are not racing snakes (I am 53 and an ex Royal Marine wifey is 45) but would still like to have a go for charity (last time I put together a 10 mile sponsored walk).
I have a few questions
If we don't get it completed in one day can we stay over in London and finish it off the following morning.
How do we "tick off" the stations
Does anyone have a slow time map and lists we could use
Can we do it as a group of say 10 -15 people
Just thought I would ask because we fancy doing something different

Thanks

FBC (Peter)

Start at your preferred terminus, or end of line. If you are not doing it on an exhibition day, I thoroughly recommend Heathrow, as it allows you to get to Kensington (Olympia) in time for one of the select few trains that run from Olympia in the morning.

You say you will do walking pace, but I thoroughly recommend doing foot transfers, whether between platforms or stations as quickly as possible. Jog if you can- a few seconds quicker on foot can save 20+minutes! (which makes a completion much more likely)

Plan your own route. There's a lot of useful information that can be found sifting through the forum, but by planning your own route you will have a more thorough understanding of what it is you are setting out to achieve. Try to timetable allowing reasonable but quick connections, wherever you need them.

I see no reason why you can't keep the stopwatch going overnight, but there's no reason why you can't complete the whole thing in a day. Keeping the time going overnight would obviously lead to by far the slowest completion yet- but it still counts provided you don't use any form of private transport while the stopwatch still runs.

Doing it in a group of 10-15 is probably too large. If you have 15- I would split into 3 groups of 5. You will have trouble making transfers with too many people as, believe it or not, the London Underground is a busy place which is often packed with commuters. You may also struggle to get 15 people onto a rush hour train which is already packed, meaning you are a train down already. My last attempt was the biggest group yet- 4 people. It was great to have 4 minds working at the same time, planning on the go and brainstorming ideas when the timetable went out the window, but we did get split up on occasion, the nightmare situation when challenging. That can only get worse with more people.

As for ticking off stations, do what you like! Just make sure you visit them all. You could cross them off on a map, or make a list and tick them off as you pass through. If you're not going for the record (Now set at 16:20:27!), there's no need to keep an extensive log of the day, but it could be interesting to look back on it in the future to remember the day if you do bother to do so. Make sure though that any logging you do do doesn't distract you from the task at hand.

Tube challenging is great fun and I wish you good luck when making your attempt!

May I suggest looking at Myles's route from 2 years ago. A completion with no runs!

The Raven wrote:May I suggest looking at Myles's route from 2 years ago. A completion with no runs!

http://www.tubeforum.co.uk/forum/index. ... =viewtopic have the whole route details if u wish

Thanks for accepting me onto the forum and for the advice.
We may have a crack at our own route but will hassle members if we get stuck or need pointers
It seems Heathrow is the best start with Amersham as a finish.
Are there any bits we don't have to do Docklands light railway comes to mind
Are there any really scrappy bits to look out for
Could do with Myles route (hero worship at the moment )
Thanks

No need to do DLR or Overground.

Once you've got your start and finish, pair off other termini e.g. Morden and Wimbledon, and work out how to get between them. You can do this on foot, or use buses, trams etc for this but not private cars, taxis or bicycles.

Look at the physical proximity of stations e.g. Northwick Park and Kenton