In no particular order:
1)Heathrow is really screwy, I imagine it must be much faster without T4 bus services. But I lost time figuring out where the express was, and where the bus was, so it's a problem instead of a crisis. But if I want to get near the record, I have to find big savings on Geoff+Neil to compensate for Heathrow.
2)I now know why the advice is to do the Hainault loop southbound. Hainault is a cold, lonely station. Which I now know well. I also spent 15 minutes sitting in the train at Epping. Why? Grrrrr......
About an hour later, I was told that there were problems on the eastern loop of the central line. You don't say......
3)I think my legs are still in West Ruislip somewhere. I certainly haven't felt them today. I need to get running!
4)I managed to get on two wrong trains through just being incompetent. The first made me do a section backwards, which involved a 10 minute wait i probably wouldn't have had the right way round.
The second I reversed after one station, before finally realising that, having got on the wrong train I should have kept going and reordered my route. Ah well.
5)I even managed to get a wrong bus at Hatton Cross. (right bus, wrong direction) Although I realised and jumped out at the first stop, there was still time for the right bus to get away.
6) Feel free to laugh. I left Edgware aiming for Stanmore. The vague plan was to get a bus, but nothing looked good in the bus station, so I set off towards Canon's Park, hoping to be caught by a bus. After about a mile, I decided to check where I was, and using a side street, the index of my A-Z told me I was on the wrong page. Nooooooooo......... I'd been going completely the wrong way, and had shot straight past Burnt Oak, SE instead of W. I managed to bail out to Queensway, but lost time+energy.
7) Problems on the east london line, I think I just timed it badly and got unlucky.
Hooray for stations with toilet facilities! Hainault and Ruislip came in handy. Is there a list anywhere? There should be.9)Mill Hill East. 15 minute wait. repeated grrrrr......
10)My route overall seemed to work well, although I was annoyed I couldn't make use of my good Zone 1 route. The running seemed well-spaced out, and often had long sections in trains to recover. Although it was the West Ruislip run where my legs decided they'd had enough, and the rest of the runs were tough. With hindsight, having returned from Acton Town for Ealing Common (closed Eastbound) and run back to Acton Town, I should have carried on to ealing Broadway and reversed.
11)Result: I thought that the last Upminster train left between 11-11:45 from where I wanted to get it. I got in at 00:20 and was delighted that I was just in time for the last one. I jumped on, my heart did a dance, my legs collapsed on the seat.
Adding together the theoretical times for the legs right at the start and the end, my total time was 19 hours and 53 minutes. Some way to go, but a good start. And it was so satisfying to see the route I'd planned actually work. To go faster, I need to figure out some of the problem connections and not screw up. Duh.
Any comments appreciated! I may try again soon. Losing Queensway will be a small issue, but a very small one, and certainly nothing compared to Ealing Common coming back.
Ric
