The "Laps of Soho" Challenge
Posted: 23 Apr 2006, 19:31
Right, I'll keep this short, but basically, here is a fact:
The area of Central London known as Soho is the area bound by Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, Oxford Street and Regent Street.
There is a tube station at each corner of this irregular four-sided shape of roads, with the exception of Cambridge Circus (Shaftesbury Ave/Charing Cross Road), where Leicester Square station is only around 200 metres away.
I propose a new challenge, the "Laps of Soho" challenge, which would consist of a comparison of times (no no, not a race, no no, not in the current climate, of course not) between participants, one group would aim to do a "Lap of Soho", i.e. do the loop of all four stations, and the other group would do the same thing above ground on foot.
The particpants doing the challenge on foot would, in the interests of making the two routes as near as possible, go up Coventry Street (assuming a Piccadilly Circus start), along the North side of Leicester Square, and up to Leicester Square station (by the Hippodrome), then up Charing Cross Road, along Oxford Street, and back down Regent Street to the finish.
The number of "laps" could be varied according to what people feel like, but running could get a bit knackering if it's too many.
I work it out as around 1.7 miles to do that route on foot, so for someone to average 8mph, that's 12 minutes 45 seconds. I don't know what the world record is for running a mile, but I think it's around 4 minutes, so if someone was to average that speed (15mph) for 1.7 miles, that would mean doing it in 6 minutes 48 seconds.
Ok, so tube would almost certainly win, but with a fit person running it, and a couple of missed changes, who knows?
A "standard challenge" could consist of one lap in each direction.
The area of Central London known as Soho is the area bound by Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross Road, Oxford Street and Regent Street.
There is a tube station at each corner of this irregular four-sided shape of roads, with the exception of Cambridge Circus (Shaftesbury Ave/Charing Cross Road), where Leicester Square station is only around 200 metres away.
I propose a new challenge, the "Laps of Soho" challenge, which would consist of a comparison of times (no no, not a race, no no, not in the current climate, of course not) between participants, one group would aim to do a "Lap of Soho", i.e. do the loop of all four stations, and the other group would do the same thing above ground on foot.
The particpants doing the challenge on foot would, in the interests of making the two routes as near as possible, go up Coventry Street (assuming a Piccadilly Circus start), along the North side of Leicester Square, and up to Leicester Square station (by the Hippodrome), then up Charing Cross Road, along Oxford Street, and back down Regent Street to the finish.
The number of "laps" could be varied according to what people feel like, but running could get a bit knackering if it's too many.
I work it out as around 1.7 miles to do that route on foot, so for someone to average 8mph, that's 12 minutes 45 seconds. I don't know what the world record is for running a mile, but I think it's around 4 minutes, so if someone was to average that speed (15mph) for 1.7 miles, that would mean doing it in 6 minutes 48 seconds.
Ok, so tube would almost certainly win, but with a fit person running it, and a couple of missed changes, who knows?
A "standard challenge" could consist of one lap in each direction.