New GWR: Marc Gawley - 21 April 2011

[Going Underground]

Thinking about it logically I agree with the comments that a lot us would never had met had it not been for the forum and I have made some truly great and new friends thanks to it's existence.. Indeed long may it continue
However perhaps the one thing we should not be discussing, or prying on in any great length or detail are full networks.
Far, far too many ideas, starting and finishing stations, routes, and runs etc have simply been given away... As mentioned many times previously there are very few "secrets" remaining so with this information handed out freely all that is left to do is scan the timetable and put some routes together.
Even if this current new record holder or any potential future person wishing to attempt it want's nothing to do with this site as a member or poster, there is nothing to stop them reading posts and being "spoon fed" with all the tools to go out and get a GWR..

[moley]

I'm 99.9% sure he reads this site. I'm sure he'll be laughing at some of the posts on this subject. He's probbably just a very busy person!

[Steeevooo]

I completely agree Kev, the days whereby to devise a route you had to manually pore over the tube map, bunging entry after entry into journey planner (or looking at Peter's spreadsheet as the case would be nowadays), study maps to look at how to connect stations & terminii etc seem to have disappeared - it's almost as if you're not allowed to have secrets in your route now without everyone else asking questions and trying to prise as much detail and information as they can from your route. Sure, there will always be the natural intrigue, and I too am intrigued by the details, but it's almost as if it's deemed wrong to have a veil of secrecy over your full network routes now.

[moley]

As most of you know, I create Geoff's routes nowadays, and I can assure you that in trying to find a route that is according to timetable better than the GWR, it does involve going back to maps etc.

These ideas then get sent to Geoff & the team who go and try out said idea and provide feedback. There are ideas that people have not considered - indeed, there are a couple of runs that I'm not aware of anyone doing that we currently have in the route.

Naturally, post attempt, when Geoff does his write-ups, these ideas wont be included. but we may still tell you that we run between Kenton and Northwick Park.

[palkanetoijala31]

there are a couple of runs that I'm not aware of anyone doing that we currently have in the route. .

Come on Moley ur talking to the run king here i have over 100 runs stored in my datbase i even run Epping to Upminster if i thought it save me time lol.

[MarcG]

Hello everyone,

An interesting phenomenon to find myself being discussed and researched online, especially for someone who’s previously kept a low profile on the internet! Moley is 100% correct with his 99.9% guess, I have noticed this thread, so I figured I should pop in and say hello properly...

Obviously I’m delighted with the news that Guinness have approved my application - it was a long time in coming! In fact judging by the dates I think some of you may have known before me, as I was offline up in the Arctic Circle this weekend for a spot of midnight sun. I guess after spending so much time underground I’ll try for all the sun I can get.

I’ve browsed through the posts up to here, and I’ll try to answer some of the questions that are being posed:

1. The reason that the member Nigel didn’t see my champagne celebrations taking place on the final platform that day (thank you for those, Nick!) is largely because they occurred at a different time to his finish. And at a different station. That’s all I shall say on the matter!

2. I can confirm that no doors were held open in the making of this record, though yes, I had a wingman, and I’m very grateful to him [Martin] for providing food, drink, and good companionship throughout the day. On my trial attempt I learnt that to make the runs work, you need to be as light as possible and as fresh as possible. Martin made that happen. My runs pretty much added up to a marathon on the day. 0 buses were used.

3. I don’t have the technical ability or artistic flair that Geoff has, so forgive the amateurishness, but here is some video footage if you’d like to get a flavour of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5Vq94Sljs I’d imagine there wouldn’t be anything that revelatory to the people on this forum though, it’s more for my friends and family who want to know what this crazy thing is that I’ve been doing.

4. I reckon that choosing to wait until the Thursday of Easter week paid off: the tube was less busy. I’d say I covered 260 miles of track based on a map I saw posted at the geofftech site (I think?)

I’ll try to make some opportunities to update my own site, http://www.TheTubeChallenge.com in the coming week. Busy times. It’s fallen way out of date.

I see reading through this thread that an impending timetable change will soon make the record [near] impossible to beat, so I imagine it will be a busy summer for people trying out final ideas! If my record stays intact then I may well put out more information about the route for anyone who’s interested. In the meantime, all the best to everyone in their attempts, and have fun – I certainly did!

Cheers,
Marc

[Garion]

Ah welcome to the forum! Sounds like you had a fun day. Congratulations on getting the record

[palkanetoijala31]

Ah welcome to the forum! Sounds like you had a fun day. Congratulations on getting the record

Ah welcome as well and congratulations on your fabulous time you certainly have made it harder for the other tube challengers.

1. Are you planning on sticking around and perhaps trying out a few differant challenges like random 15 like there is on july 23rd.?

2. And when u stepped on to the last platform and got out of x station what champagne did u celebrate with.?

[Root]

Welcome to the forum! Thanks for sharing some information, understandably limited as it is. I already said well done indirectly, but seeing as you're here now, I might as well say it again directly: congratulations for a stonking time, and for surprising all of us here. I'm glad someone not actively on the forum managed to break a record that was considered extremely difficult to beat. Though of course you'd be warmly welcomed if you did decide to take part in posting here

- Oliver

[The Raven]

Well done.

That’s a lot of running that you did!

No buses, non-terminal 5 finish, that will put the cats amongst the pigeons!

-Glen

[palkanetoijala31]

Sorry i forgot to ask a 3rd and 4th question

3. Which tube challenger do you most respect on here.?

4. If any tube challenger you think could break your time who do you think it would be.?

[tubeguru]

What strange questions ...

[palkanetoijala31]

What strange questions ...

but at least Marc can answer them questions as they are not relating to his route in any way or giving any secrets away that he might have!its a kind of eh Marc we would like to know you better but not pry into ur record route question!and i hope from a former record holder he beat he might have respect for the former holder time he beat a kind of passing the torch as it were!.

[dudey]

Judging by his video and facts given, I reckon he went Upminster-Epping. Given the stat of around 25 miles run overall on the day, I'm willing to bet there was a nice run in there up in the North-West corner. Basically I think this guy did it by being really fit and maintaining a good pace on several over-1-mile runs. Something which is encouraging me to get a route sorted and researched before this Olympia change

[Nigel]

May I also add my congratulations to Marc on a stunning achievement. And I think I should apologise if my earlier comments appeared to cast any aspersions on your record - but with initially no information I was certainly intrigued.

I suspect Marc doesn't want to keep on answering questions from nosey challengers, but I would be interested to know if your novel way of validating your route was instead of, or in addition to, the normal Guinness requirements, i.e. did you still keep a log book of times and train numbers, get hourly witness statements and an independent stopwatch operator for the start and finish? It would be useful to know for when I next try myself, currently planned for September, not that I think I have much hope of getting near this new record time.