tubechallenge.com

Hi all,

I've been planning this coming Bank Holiday weekend for a few weeks and I've got Sunday, Monday & Tuesday to 'play' on the TFL system. This will be the first time I have done anything like this so I have absolute confidence that things will go wrong - but I am determined to enjoy myself!

The planning has been hours looking at the tube map, deciding where I want to go, designing routes, working out the best exit doors and changes (the Station Master app has been invaluable for this) and generally being geeky and creating spreadsheets for each challenge. As it's my first time there is no way I'll be breaking any records (and I'm not even going to try) but I am looking forward to gaining experience and seeing what tweaks I need to make for future trips. I'll also be visiting stations and places that I've not been to before, which is always enjoyable.

I've planned out routes for:

* The Bottle
* Zone 1
* All Lines
* The A-Z

The latter I am planning to do on Tuesday (when everything should be running!) and is the one I am most looking forward to. It'll be a lot of shuttling back-and-forth and it'll be interesting to see how long I can last without a wee break! During my time there I also want to try and use the Northern City Line from Moorgate (I didn't even know this existed until a fortnight ago) and catch a train from a mainline station, probably Paddington, as I've only ever used St Pancras & Kings Cross before.

During my challenges I will be running a stop watch, both on my wrist and on my phone, taking pics and logging the times in my notebook. I'll be posting about my experiences after I've completed them and showing the routes/times as well as what went right ... and what didn't!

Wish me luck!

Good luck !

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

DavidC wrote:Good luck !

Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

Good luck! Beware of the bus strikes on some routes today and Monday.

real men run don't wait for buses

palkanetoijala31 wrote:real men run don't wait for buses

This isn't just for challenges, but generally!

Did the Bottle yesterday and the Zone 1 and All Lines today. It was silly of me to even think about doing this stuff as an overweight, very unfit old man but it has been fun but I'll never do it on a Bank Holiday weekend again; esp not with the Notting Hill Carnival on!

I am writing reports with (pathetic) times and I'll post them later this week. I've met some really nice people over the last two days. A Mum who couldn't believe that I helped her with her child and pushchair on stairs. A couple that wanted to pay me after I helped move their heavy cases from the platform to the escalators. Then again, someone asked me on Sunday what I was doing as they saw me writing every time we left a station. I explained, showed him my plans and map and he responded by saying 'I thought you grew out of autism'. Cheers. Thanks for that. Rough with the smooth.

One thing I hadn't paid enough attention to though is how tiring this malarkey is! I am absolutely cream crackered at the end of each day. My knees, ankles and feet are throbbing. I've never drunk so much water (or peed so little); it's even more draining than 90 degree heat in Florida theme parks!

I've really enjoyed it though. Tomorrow I hope to do the A-Z and time permitting, a trip to London Bridge to see the new design. Time for zzzz ... and dream of being able to run !