Zone 1 2011 with Tangy (and Roger)

[tangy]

Z1 2011- The Rules of the challenge.

1.1: The aim is to visit all 64 London Underground stations that form London fare zone 1 in the fastest time. The current time to beat is 2 hours, 42 minutes and 22 seconds. **also see rule 2.1.

1.2: To "visit" a station means to arrive at or depart from (or both) all 64 Zone 1 stations on a LU train. You are NOT required to get off at every station but you can of course alight at any station to change lines or transfer to a nearby station. If a station is temporarily closed for any reason e.g. security alert, rebuilding etc. then a "pass through" of the station is accepted. **also take note of rule 2.2

1.3: Transfers between stations must only be undertaken on foot, by bus or by NR trains.

1.4: Challengers are required to give basic evidence of their starting and finishing stations plus the time they completed the challenge in. A stopwatch is useful for recording your overall time.

1.5: Challengers may compete in the zone 1 challenge as an individual (solo) or in small teams up to 5 people. Each team must be required to think of a team name for themselves- there will be a best team name prize, so the wittier the better.

1.6: All challengers are requested to be at the specified meeting point by 1215 on the day of the challenge. A starting station will then be drawn at random (from all 64 Z1 stations) excluding those stations that have been start stations in previous years, these being Vauxhall, St. James's Park, Sloane Square, Kings Cross, Angel and Waterloo. In addition since Blackfriars is closed for rebuilding this will be excluded from the draw.

1.7: The challenge will begin at the station that was picked out at random as near to 1300 as possible. When I officially start the challenge you MUST take the FIRST train in the direction you wish to head. If a second train is described on the board going to the same destination as your team, you cannot wait for it and take that instead.

1.8: Your time starts when the doors firmly close on the first train you board at the start station and the challenge ends when the first member of your team physically sets foot on the platform at your finishing station. Timings must be noted down in hours, minutes and seconds.

1.9: Once you have started your stopwatch and departed you may NOT return to the start and reset the stopwatch. Should two or more teams start and finish on the same trains (at the same station) they are ranked equal regardless of the exact measured time.

1.10: If you finish by running/transferring to or departing from your last required station, you must keep the stopwatch going until you arrive at the NEXT station in any direction. If you are still going after 4 hours since the start of the challenge, stop your timing at the next station and count up how many stations you visited up to that point then head direct to the pub.

1.11. By entering yourself into the Zone 1 challenge you abide by these rules. Any disputes will be dealt with by the BOZO whose decision is final.
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Station specific rulings:

2.1: Paddington (H&C/Circle) is separate from Paddington (Bakerloo/District) and Edgware Road (Circle) is separate from Edgware Road (Bakerloo), all four of these stations must be visited individually.

2.2: The "pass through" rule does NOT apply to Tottenham Court Road since Central Line trains are stopping as normal. For your route to be valid you MUST visit TCR on the Central Line, a pass through on the Northern Line will not be accepted.

2.3: Should Baker Street by picked as a start station, teams wishing to travel clockwise on the Circle must try and catch the FIRST train out to thier first interchange station (be it a Met or Circle) despite leaving from different platforms.

2.4: Should High Street Kensington be picked as a start station, teams wishing to travel to Earl's Court should board the FIRST train out (be it an Olympia or a Wimbledon train) despite these leaving from different platforms.

2.5: This also means e.g. for a Farringdon start, a team may decide to wait (say) for an eastbound Hammersmith & City train (for Aldgate East), a clockwise Circle for travel beyond Aldgate or any SSL train for Liverpool Street. However a team MUST NOT wait for the correct sequence (like H&C-Met-Circle and expect to make the Aldgate run to catch that Circle train!)

2.6: This is only a bit of fun, thus getting train numbers and/or logging of arrival and departure times at each station is not required (though you may do so if you wish). This is not the official Guinness World Record attempt!
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General Advice:

3.1. We all know we are competing against each other but please take care when doing inter-station runs along corridors and escalators, other members of the public may not be as easy on their feet or know the Underground as well as we do!

3.2. Please do not hold the train doors open for an excessively amount of time, if your team mates are too far behind you, let the train go and wait for them to catch up

3.3. Don't be fooled in thinking that this is an "easy" challenge, it isn't! There will be lots of changing trains/interchanging to other lines involved which can be more intensive than on other challenges.

3.4. It is a good idea to wear light coloured comfortable fitting clothing as you can get hot very quickly on the challenge plus only bring what you really need to compete on the challenge, extra weight whilst running only slows you down!

[greatkingrat]

I'm thinking whether it might be best in future years to use the R15 generator to draw the start station (only) and announce it on here beforehand and then people just have to get there for a 1300 start (which, in practice, would mean getting there for about 1245). You could continue with the convention of excluding previous years' start stations. (This avoid the possibility of longer-distance travellers having to pay peak-time fares as they then have to arrive later).

The random draw is the best bit! If anyone thinks they might not be able to get to Liverpool Street by 1200, they can always ask one of us to text them the starting station and then go straight there.

1.6: All challengers are requested to be at the specified meeting point by 1215 on the day of the challenge. A starting station will then be drawn at random (from all 64 Z1 stations) excluding those stations that have been start stations in previous years, these being Vauxhall, St. James's Park, Sloane Square, Kings Cross, Angel and Waterloo. In addition since Blackfriars is closed for rebuilding this will be excluded from the draw.

We have already done Westminster as well.

[Sam]

There is no way the starting station should be pre drawn. That's just utter madness!!

Sometimes in life, if we want to attend things then we just have to put ourselves out a bit

[tubeguru]

And we're off! No sooner are the rules published than everyone moans about them. You'd have thought that after seven years we'd have got over this and got the basic rules straightened out.

[Sam]

Neil, now where's the fun in that? Everyone loves a good debate

[greatkingrat]

Anyway, we're not moaning about the rules, we're agreeing with them!

[tubeguru]

I like a mass debate.

[RichieG]

Yeh, I also can't see anybody disagreeing with the rules this time around (all that's in the past now...)... the only comment was a missing starting station...

Ah well, I don't really care - I'm not expecting to win. I would claim my three-year-long loosing streak were it not for the fact that -somehow - I didn't come last last year. I do, however, still need to complete the last R15 which I might well do this time around (though more probable on the Thursday when I come up).

[snudge27]

I like a mass debate.

You beat me to that one, Neil!

[tubeguru]

I like a mass debate.

You beat me to that one, Neil!

I tend to only beat myself ...

[hwolge]

Is this the right spot: 51°31'3.5N 0°04'57W ? Paste in Google Earth / Googlemap to see where it is...

[StonePony]

I am liking the look of this challenge - any event which has a rule to stop after an amount of time and go directly to the pub is good in my book (I have a feeling I may well hit the 4 hour limit.)

In my noobie way I was thinking about what i might need for the endeavour and came up with what seems a short checklist of

Pen/Pencil
Tube Map
Stopwatch
Bottle of Water
Some Snacks
Stout Walking Boots
Z1 Travelcard (if such a thing still exists)
Beer Tokens

I think that covers the essentials or am I missing something vital?

[tubeguru]

Walking boots? Running trainers are best for comfort I'd have thought.

[Nigel]

Is this the right spot: 51°31'3.5N 0°04'57W ? Paste in Google Earth / Googlemap to see where it is...

That's where I think it is - but I suppose Tangy should confirm.

On a different matter, I've not recieved a PM but will there be a contact phone number provided if problems on the day? I appreciate that you don't want to post telephone numbers on the open forum.

[greatkingrat]

This is probably the best map
http://www.networkrail.co.uk/documents/ ... %20Map.pdf

McDonalds is No.59 on the top floor.