Tube Olympics - Event 2 - Bottle Challenge - 17th July

[Sam]

Not bad for someone whobelieves they are to fat.

Hence why he had the laziest route

[The Raven]

My route

Green Park Gloucester Road Monument Bank Tottenham Court Road Warren Street Euston Square Great Portland Street Regent's Park Edgware Road Edgware Road High Street Kensington Notting Hill Gate Oxford Circus Charing Cross Piccadilly Circus King's Cross Tower Hill

Always nice to met up with the tube-challenge posse!

It was very hot and sweaty down the tubes. I had quite a few sexy changes, especially at Bank and Charing Cross. Good job I scouted the hole in the wall at Charing Cross, otherwise I would of missed that change. Oh, and a big apology to the woman on the bike at Warren Street that I nearly knocked over!

Bring on Zone One!

[hopeful traveller]

Better change that post before the spelling policeman comes....

[The Raven]

Better change that post before the spelling policeman comes....

It could have been a tandem-bike!

[Going Underground]

An excellent challenge and great to see some old faces back for this one

My route was flying along and I thought sub 2hours was possible until sitting at Baker Street on a red signal for 4 minutes then tired legs getting the better of me at Warren Street and thus just missing a Southbound by a couple of seconds meant that I had 3-4 mins wait for the last 3 changes....

My watch was also reset at Knightsbridge with 3mins 46secs to be deducted for top times purposes... making this 2hr 07mins 05secs

Green Park Knighstbridge Kings X Baystwater (Clockwise) run to Queensway Oxford Circus Paddington Edgware Road (Bakerloo) run to Edgware Road (H & C) Euston Sq run to Warren St Charing X TCR Bank - on the Woodford via Hainault

And twice during research I picked up the direct MHE train....

[tractakid]

I had a great and thoroughly tiring day yesterday.

Got the 12:22 to London Euston, which game me plenty of time before the challenge to do research for door positions. This mostly helped me with the challenge, except at Queensway where I got the opposite end of the train and had to traverse the entire length of the platform I decided to time it, just for the sake of it, and it took 3 hours 15 at a very leisurely pace. I am not sure this time is accurate though, as the stopwatch could well have been stopped and started again.

Having completed my research, I had quite a bit of time before the start of 19:00, so I had a go at the All Lines to try and beat my uncertain time from event 1. First attempt was aborted at Moorgate when the H&C train was held at a red signal. Second attempt I got a time of 42:36 which is about what I got on event 1. The 'perfect 3' were a little sluggish, and it was a circle train first at Embankment, but all other connections were pretty good. I managed to run (mostly) Green Park, which helped. I think i'll give the All Lines a go whenever I have the chance, it's so short it can fit in nicely, and it's actually a lot of fun. It's also good for my fitness. I'm thinking I may come down on DLR day and cram in as many challenges as possible. Mouse, All Lines, then DLR all in a day?!?!

Anyway, after using the loo and filling up my water bottles at the cafe behind Green Park, I was in the station with plenty of time to spare. I had a quick nosey round the Picc platforms to se if I could see anyone there, but I didn't as this was a while before the challenge begun. Therefore, the only people I saw beforehand were TOSA Antony, Starkey and Jamie, who started on the same train as me. We had differing opinions about the door position- mine was slightly closer, but they still managed to get ahead of me and make a train I didn't. This didn't really matter though, as I would have caught the same circle line train later on, and it also meant I pushed the 'lap' button on the stopwatch later, at my first unique station Sloane Square. (Ma quicker 'actual' bottle time.) Anyway, that all got screwed up due to my catastrophic stopwatch operation.

Highlights/lowlights

Seeing an OLYMPIA TRAIN at HSK! (a small part of me wanted to get on it )
Just missing a train at Queensway (lift should just have been a tiny bit quicker, didn't help that it was the only lift in operation)
Getting the door position at Queensway horrifically wrong (the opposite end of the train)
Just missing a train at Paddington H&C which I could have made had I pushed myself. (I'm sure the transfer at Paddington has changed since Z1?!)
Not using the sneaky 'wrong way' transfer I found at TCR
Getting an A stock from Liverpool Street to Kings Cross (even though the walk through train would have been useful )
Cannon Street was a pass through
Stopwatch failing
Coming last
Meeting all you guys in McDonalds
Good conversation with Tangy on the way to Euston

Still, despite the overwhelming sway towards lowlights, I still thoroughly enjoyed it (I love tube challenging). I want to do the bottle again, from a sensible starting station and using the top TOSA tip about stopwatches!

The route:

Green Park, Victoria, Sloane Square, Westminster, Green Park, South Kensington, Bayswater, Queensway, Oxford Circus, Paddington bak, Paddington H&C, Euston Square, Warren Street, TCR, Liverpool Street, KCSP, Piccadilly Circus, Embankment, Aldgate.

Too many changes in it, Scrxisi has the right idea methinks!

[Sam]

Too many changes in it, Scrxisi has the right idea methinks!

Scrxisi doesn't do right ideas

The winning route had many changes in it though!! You need a lot of luck in this game!

[Starkey7]

So had I taken the departure board at Queensway totally seriously and walked downstairs, I'd have still come second but bumped Kev and Peter up to second too?! Now I feel rather uncharitable

I get the feeling that they don't display trains that are less than two minutes away because they don't want you to hurry.

[tangy]

Can everyone who did double back Green Park please post thier times up so that they can be added to the Top Times website.

Thanks.

[tractakid]

Due to catastrophic stopwatch failure, I do not know precisely when I departed Sloane Square. My final Olympic time is accurate to a few seconds, but I wouldn't be able to provide an accurate bottle time. Anyway, Cannon Street was a pass through, so it shouldn't really count. If Antony or Jamie or John know when they were at Sloane Square, I got the train behind them from Victoria, so if they did the double back, I would likely have been on the train behind them doubling back.

[tangy]

The times acheived in this challenge have been added to the Circle Line Bottle tab of my website.

I am still awaiting the revised times (i.e non double back times) from greatkingrat and Soup Dragon, thus these times do not appear on the league table yet.

[greatkingrat]

I didn't double back so don't have another time.

[tangy]

Thanks for confirming, will add your time to the league table shortly.

[Starkey7]

Right, our total time from Green Park to Bank was 2:16'54", but since we revisited Green Park and Victoria, our net time was 2:11'00".

[Soup Dragon]

Right, our total time from Green Park to Bank was 2:16'54", but since we revisited Green Park and Victoria, our net time was 2:11'00".

Thanks John, I had forgot to make a note of our departure time from Sloane Square.