Zone 1 Challenge: Another run...

[hwolge]

Living in Sweden its a daunting project to go to London for *just* a bit of Underground fun - but we did! We posted a 2:58:37 for the Zone 1 Challenge after planning the whole thing from Sweden.

Read all about it: http://lund.dyndns.org/zone1/

HÃ¥kan

[CrunchySaviour]

ARRRGH! To have exerted myself severely and find that I've been beaten by a group of people who don't even live in London!!!

Well done, gentlemen. That's a good time.

I want to wrie a computer program to do this but I just don't have the knowledge... I think it needs a little more than basic knowledge of C.

[hwolge]

Well, thank you for your courteous attitude towards us foreigners...

See you on 20th of May (Ryan Air and girlfriend willing...)!

HÃ¥kan

[CrunchySaviour]

It's damn lucky you got that time, if you think about it. Any number of the lines could have been delayed, and having booked your flights you'd have had to do the challenge regardless!

I am in awe of your dedication and splendid time. Thank you for giving me the energy to plan another attempt. I must beat the previous record before May 20th!

[tubeguru]

Well, thank you for your courteous attitude towards us foreigners...

See you on 20th of May (Ryan Air and girlfriend willing...)!

HÃ¥kan

hwolge - you're definitely in for the Zone 1 Challenge in May then? If so, I'll add you to the list.

[G Force]

Thats a very good time hwolge, considering you don't know the tube like the back of your hand, unlike most of us lot.

I had a go at the Zone 1 challenge recently (based of my Circle Line Bottle Challenge route for which I still hold the record). Unfortunately luck was not with me, so I gave up at Aldgate (I was heading for an approx. 3h05min time), and went to Pret with Geoff instead.

[hwolge]

G Force

Thanks for your comments!

No, I/we don't know the Underground like most of you guys. But it would be unfair to claim total ignorance as well. Our good time was helped by:

No cancelled or severly delayed trains... Except that our start WAS delayed because of a cancelled train (we believe - impossible for us foreigners to make out the garbled voice on the PA).
Very precise information from TFLs web site, enabling
a very good route.

However,
We had 4(!) consecutive connections where we either saw or heard the train leaving when entering the platform... All of them on frequent lines though.
We had very limited knowledge of where in the train to board to minimize the walk at the next connection... (We estimate that we lost 10 to 20 seconds on the average per connection here, and even worse towards the end when rush hour approached).

All in all, we were very happy with our run, but believe it could be improved upon with some more local knowledge, some more running, and - of course - more luck.

HÃ¥kan

[CrunchySaviour]

Well done, Hakan. Your computer program must know some terrible secrets.

My day of judgement's (nearly) come, and you can bet that I've been resting for this testing, digesting every word the experts say...

[lazza747]

Well done, Hakan. Your computer program must know some terrible secrets.

My day of judgement's (nearly) come, and you can bet that I've been resting for this testing, digesting every word the experts say...

You're setting yourself up for such an arse kicking if you don't win you know

[CrunchySaviour]

You're setting yourself up for such an "posterior" kicking if you don't win you know

I just thought I'd add a bit of competitive banter to the proceedings, in order to liven things up a bit