A SLAM completion!!
Posted: 29 Jun 2015, 16:51
As no one else has had a crack at it, I thought I would have a go at the SLAM challenge and I am happy to say that earlier on today I completed it!
SLAM Challenge - 94 stations (including Battersea Park and Emirates Greenwich Peninsular)
Start - Kew Gardens
Finish - Morden
Time - 8 hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds
Report
Starting at Kew Gardens, I caught the first District Line train out to Richmond to catch a train towards Waterloo. I hopped off at Queenstown Road to catch the London Overground train out of Battersea Park at 06:18 only for things to start going wrong. I messed up the change onto the West Croydon/Crystal Palace line and it cost me 15 mins. Nevertheless, I continued down and ended up in West Croydon to discover that my original plan included an unnecessary change, meaning I had made up the lost 15 mins by the time I arrived at Clapham Junction. Oh how I had forgotten what Clapham Junction is like during morning rush hour(!!). Looped up to West Brompton before heading back down to Wimbledon. Misseing a train at West Brompton (more on that later) meant that I thought I had messed up the Tramlink connection at Wimbledon. Sure enough, there was no tram there for another 8 mins when I arrived. However, my luck seemed to change as I left Wimbledon to discover I had just missed a signal failure on the District line between Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon by mere minutes and the Tramlink section was going very smoothly. Completed the Croydon Loop, New Addington branch and Elmers End branch without a hitch and even made it back on schedule... until I hit Arena and everything falls apart (again!). Was expecting a tram to Beckenham Junction to be there or at most no more that about 3 mins away, instead I don't get a tram for another 10 mins
A 3 min hold at Beckenham Road added insult to injury and meant there was no hope for my original Beckenham Junction connection, therefore I was back to 15 mins behind. Headed back into the city to tick off a few more stations and then headed out towards North Greenwich and the EAL. As I had never done it before and it was glorious sunshine I very much enjoyed it 
. Once back on the ground, completed the Lewisham branch and Woolwich Arsenal before heading out to New Cross. By this point I was now ~30 mins off scheduled time due to out of sync timings, fitness and my lack of knowledge of some stations. Completed the last few LO stations and finally headed out on the Northern line to finish at Morden.
Things I have learnt
1. Fitness, or rather lack of it. I use to do athletics and my body is built to sprint 400m, not run anything over 1km. Adding the fact I had over 7.5km of running in this route and I haven't been running regularly in the last couple of months mad for some very sore legs and lungs... Time to get back on it then!
2. Carriage selection - this cost me at West Brompton. Got into rear one at Clapham Junction forgetting the steps at West Brompton were towards the front of the train At rush hour as well, it meant I missed the District line train by seconds. Same thing happened at a few other stations but more for inconvenience rather than having any effect on the route. Now that a dry run has been completed, I should be a lot smoother next time.
Conclusion
To be honest, I am happy to complete a challenge and at least get a time on the board. I reckon that a smooth run and some better route planning could see a time around the 7 hours/7 hours 15 mins mark so if anyone fancies it, there's the target to aim for. I will probably have another attempt at some point but now to look at some more challenges!
SLAM Challenge - 94 stations (including Battersea Park and Emirates Greenwich Peninsular)
Start - Kew Gardens
Finish - Morden
Time - 8 hours, 13 minutes and 34 seconds
Report
Starting at Kew Gardens, I caught the first District Line train out to Richmond to catch a train towards Waterloo. I hopped off at Queenstown Road to catch the London Overground train out of Battersea Park at 06:18 only for things to start going wrong. I messed up the change onto the West Croydon/Crystal Palace line and it cost me 15 mins. Nevertheless, I continued down and ended up in West Croydon to discover that my original plan included an unnecessary change, meaning I had made up the lost 15 mins by the time I arrived at Clapham Junction. Oh how I had forgotten what Clapham Junction is like during morning rush hour(!!). Looped up to West Brompton before heading back down to Wimbledon. Misseing a train at West Brompton (more on that later) meant that I thought I had messed up the Tramlink connection at Wimbledon. Sure enough, there was no tram there for another 8 mins when I arrived. However, my luck seemed to change as I left Wimbledon to discover I had just missed a signal failure on the District line between Wimbledon Park and Wimbledon by mere minutes and the Tramlink section was going very smoothly. Completed the Croydon Loop, New Addington branch and Elmers End branch without a hitch and even made it back on schedule... until I hit Arena and everything falls apart (again!). Was expecting a tram to Beckenham Junction to be there or at most no more that about 3 mins away, instead I don't get a tram for another 10 mins
A 3 min hold at Beckenham Road added insult to injury and meant there was no hope for my original Beckenham Junction connection, therefore I was back to 15 mins behind. Headed back into the city to tick off a few more stations and then headed out towards North Greenwich and the EAL. As I had never done it before and it was glorious sunshine I very much enjoyed it . Once back on the ground, completed the Lewisham branch and Woolwich Arsenal before heading out to New Cross. By this point I was now ~30 mins off scheduled time due to out of sync timings, fitness and my lack of knowledge of some stations. Completed the last few LO stations and finally headed out on the Northern line to finish at Morden.Things I have learnt
1. Fitness, or rather lack of it. I use to do athletics and my body is built to sprint 400m, not run anything over 1km. Adding the fact I had over 7.5km of running in this route and I haven't been running regularly in the last couple of months mad for some very sore legs and lungs... Time to get back on it then!
2. Carriage selection - this cost me at West Brompton. Got into rear one at Clapham Junction forgetting the steps at West Brompton were towards the front of the train
At rush hour as well, it meant I missed the District line train by seconds. Same thing happened at a few other stations but more for inconvenience rather than having any effect on the route. Now that a dry run has been completed, I should be a lot smoother next time.Conclusion
To be honest, I am happy to complete a challenge and at least get a time on the board. I reckon that a smooth run and some better route planning could see a time around the 7 hours/7 hours 15 mins mark so if anyone fancies it, there's the target to aim for. I will probably have another attempt at some point but now to look at some more challenges!