April Fools Day attempt in aid of Asthma UK

[Perry Vale]

So, we are just off to Nita Hurley’s for a short sleep before hoping that at the very least the 5.28 leaves Amersham on time. Thanks for all the answers and advice in getting us this far.

Our main aim is to complete the whole 269, particularly now that, with gift aid, we have raised over £5,000 for Asthma UK – http://www.justgiving.com/thetubechallenge. We will be keeping an eye on our overall time, however, and hope to post a couple of updates throughout the day, possibly via Ken Salgreen, one of our Support Team. And, as seems the norm, we will write a little report in the days that follow.

Until Heathrow…

Rick and Perry

[Root]

I think I might have to pass on coming to see you tomorrow morning, but you never know. If I have a sleepless night like I did last night, then it's a possibility. Just don't expect anything

All the best, anyway, and well done for raising such a fantastic amount of money for a worthy and important cause.

[palkanetoijala31]

Just remember if u do complete all 269 in 18h 15m then submit ur claim u be the new world record holder keep us updated throughout the day good luck

[Going Underground]

Well it's a bit grey and miserable in London today light drizzle but quite mild.....
Service doesn't look too bad just a couple of minor delays.......
Hope all goes well and we will look out for you when we are doing our Z1 this evening....

[palkanetoijala31]

Well i hope they are doing well just a few minor delays and surprise surprise its Kings Cross again

[Ken Salgreen]

Haven't heard from Rick and Perry yet, but I hope the Baker Street signal problems don't waylay them too much.

[CrunchySaviour]

Well, Rick and Perry, I hope it's going well for you today so far! Here are the Baker Street problems(10.30am)...

DISTRICT LINE: Suspended between Edgware Road and High Street Kensington due to signal failure at Baker Street.
HAMMERSMITH & CITY LINE: Suspended between Edgware Road and Kings Cross eastbound only due to signal failure at Baker Street. Minor delays to the rest of the line.
Metropolitan METROPOLITAN LINE: Suspended between Baker Street and Aldagte due to signal failure at Baker Street.

[Ken Salgreen]

Update from Perry and Rick:

Everything kicked off well, the 5.28 from Amersham was early; the made the Moore Park connection (do I have that right?) easily, and since then everything's been going downhill rapidly. Getting to Upminster was a breeze but generally the District & Circle lines have been nightmares, and plans have had to change completely.

Oh well - they have donuts and orange juice freshly delivered by a support team member, and sound like they're enjoying it!

[palkanetoijala31]

keep going i hope the hammersmith line clears up for you its Moor Park well its a good start many people miss that one early in the day.

[Ken Salgreen]

And they're still going strong - negotiating Hainault at the moment - and vaguely confident of finishing. No way of putting a time on it since the plans have been discarded four times over by now, thanks to changes and delays.

[palkanetoijala31]

Whats happening now any updates are they doing well?

[Going Underground]

On our return from the Marble Arch Z1 last night/early hours of this morning our carriage arrived at Hatton Cross right where the guys were having a final photo of the day... Although we hadn't met them before we knew straight away who it was......

Rick & Perry looked remarkbly fresh and confirmed they had really suffered due to the problems mentioned on previous topic posts......
Unfortunately they didn't quite manage a full network completion as T4 was closed and I think the time was around 18hrs 40mins...

It was good to meet the guys and they also commented on what a tough challenge this is and they are both marathon runners.......

Despite the problems they enjoyed the day and I look forward to reading their write up.....

A valiant first attempt and better luck next time........

[Perry Vale]

It was indeed a tough but highly enjoyable day, frustratingly ending one station short of the full network.

Having negotiated the top of the Metropolitan Line and discovered that running between stations is entirely unlike any form of running either of us have previously encountered, we had just headed back into Z1 extremely pleased with our negotation of Upminster, before becoming involved in two unrelated problems, both to do with the Circle Line.

Firstly we ended up waiting at Aldgate for 20 minutes, having been told three times that the train we wanted was two minutes away; then we were kicked off a train at Bayswater when the Baker Street signalling problems arose, and both lines at that station were suspended (or that's what station staff announced). Despite knowing that there were signalling problems at Marble Arch, we took the decision to totally change route, run to Queensway and head West - probably the correct decision, but still entailing a 10 minute wait for a Central line train, a little harsh in the middle of the day.

At this stage we knew that any chance of a sub-18 hour 15 min time had virtually disappeared, but Rick Mansworth is a stubborn man (and we had £5,000 riding on doing as well as we could), so we didn't even consider aborting, and things got much better for most of the rest of the day, despite some oddities of the new route and plenty of doubling back to finish off the earlier missed stations.

A few highlights - diving headlong into a carriage for the double back at Epping; meeting a woman who manages part of the Pic Line (on the Northern); the driver at Edgware announcing what we were doing to the rest of the train; a witness at Upminster donating to our justgiving page during the day; 20 mins 53 seconds between High Barnet and Cockfosters trains (which I imagine is reasonably good); and getting in the shower afterwards.

I guess we cocked up at the end, not knowing that T4 trains end earlier than T5, but bumping into Soup Dragon, Going Underground and the others soothed any disappointment - it was their fault that we took the challenge on in the first place, so it was kind of poignant! And, thanks to one of our fantastic support team, we had a celebratory lager ready for the train back to Northfields.

For the record, we completed 268 stations in 18 hours, 21 mins, 42 secs, but, the way the connections worked, even if we could have got to T4, it would have taken a minimum of an additional 25 mins. Had we changed onto a T4 train the first time we were at Hatton Cross (an eight minute wait according to the matrix), I estimate our best time would have been 18 hours 50 mins. A long way from 18 hours 15 mins, and in a different stratosphere to the 17 hours 30 mins of the Browns (T5 notwithstanding).

Rick Mansworth will no doubt add his own thoughts on our attempt, but, to conclude, we both loved it, and learnt a great deal, so now we have enthusiasm, a reasonable route (we think), and some experience. Until the next time...

[Root]

the driver at Edgware announcing what we were doing to the rest of the train;

Wow. I presume that, because you included this in your "highlights" section, that he was encouraging rather than criticising you? I've only ever had negative messages from drivers, like "please do not run between carriages at stations".

Well done, it all sounds ab fab.

[CrunchySaviour]

Marvellous, it sounds like you did well in adverse conditions!

The kind of running between stations - it's a sort of long-distance hike-sprint, I reckon.