The current Zone 1 cup holder, Tangy, drew Notting Hill Gate as the start station for the challenge. Quite an interesting start station! 3 ways out, each with pros and cons. We all had a long ride on the Central line to NHG, all the while planning routes. At Tottenham Court Road someone pointed out that we should have taken the Elizabeth Line to Paddington instead. The route I managed to knock-up was:
NHG
Earl's Court
Russell Square
Holborn
Bank
Euston
TCR
Queensway
(run) Bayswater
Paddington (Praed Street)
(run) Paddington (H&C)
Edgware Road (Circle)
(run) Edgware Road (Bakerloo)
E&C
London Bridge
Waterloo
BPS
(run) Vauxhall
Victoria
Sloane Square
The Aldgates
Great Portland Street
I chose to start by heading south, meaning that I wouldn't have possibly spend an age waiting for a Wimbleware later in the day. Tangy and Lewis started in the same direction, but Tangy doubled back at HSK. At Earl's Court Lewis went to the District and I headed for the Piccadilly. Heading west I found myself sat next to a very talkative, slighty tipsy lady with her friend opposite. I think this was the the first time I've ended up talking to a stranger on the Tube. I left them at Russell Square for a double back to Holborn. I had assumed it would be a cross-platform so I hadn't bothered to look at door positions. It wasn't, and I had to run down the length of the platform before crossing over the tracks to the southbound side.
The next few changes were rather slow. At TCR I got very confused and started to head down an escalator back to the Northern Line. I realised my mistake after a few feet and managed to run back up the escalator (anyone else remember Gladiators?) before heading down the right corridor. Just missed a train but another wasn't far away. There were long queues for the lifts at Queensway so decided to (slowly) run up the stairs.
From here on I had a wonderful set of connections, especially on less frequently served bits of track. Barely any wait at Bayswater, and a train already in the platform at Paddington (H&C). There were minor delays on the Jubilee, but I reached the Northern at Waterloo with a Battersea train in 1 minute. Absolute win! Ran to Vauxhall, regularly looking over my shoulder in case a bus showed up but one never did. Further good changes at Victoria and Sloane Square.
The train I was on out of Sloane Square was a Circle. I spent most of the way to Tower Hill wondering if I should chance a H&C train at Aldgate East, or change to the Dictrict train behind this one and catch a more frequent Met line train from Aldgate. I eventually decided on the latter and, after visiting Aldgate East, ran to Aldgate where there was a Watford train due out in 1 minute. Almost immediately after leaving the train stopped, but the pace picked up and I finished at Great Portland Street as planned. I had managed to beat my previous time by about 3 minutes, so I was pleased with that.