Random 15 Championship 2014/15: Round 4

[mrredrunner100]

i wont be able to make it this time round as i have a cub/beaver event going on throughout the day which i need to go to, also the GA replacement busses are a right pain at the moment

ill be at the next one though

[martino]

Re: Random 15 Championship 2014/15: Round 4

Postby palkanetoijala31 » 12 Mar 2015, 13:08
Attending / Parkrun

Tangy
GU / Fulham Palace
Nozza / Fulham Palace
Nozza Jnr / Fulham Palace
The Orange One
leamfarrar
tractakid / Cassiobury
The Raven
A2
Appocomaster (Richard)
greatkingrat / Fulham Palace (maybe)
DrainBrain / Fulham Palace
Myles / Northala Fields
PALKANETOIJALA31 / fulham palace
martino

I've never done this before but I am planning to come tomorrow.

[MylesHSG]

Welcome to the site. And look forward to seeing new faces tomorrow.

[palkanetoijala31]

I Couldnt be bothered to get up for parkrun so i will return for random 15 only.

[leamfarrar]

Jut arrived. I'm right outside next to the map

[MylesHSG]

Another well run event, cheers Tangy for organising!

[tractakid]

Winning route:

Stockwell, Kings Cross, Arsenal, Leicester Square, Waterloo, Westminster, Victoria, Oxford Circus, Notting Hill Gate, Earls Court, Ravenscourt Park, Hammersmith, run to Hammersmith, Wood Lane.

Mostly very good changes, except about 3 minutes at Earls Court, 3 or 4 at Ravenscourt Park and getting the second train out of Hammersmith as the boards were lying. I know the boards have the potential to lie but there's not much you can do about it if it's not cross platform.

[DrainBrain]

Walk in the Park route:

Oval, Stockwell, Kennington, Waterloo, Bank, Holborn, Arsenal, Green Park, walk to St. James's Park, Victoria, Oxford Circus, Notting Hill Gate, High Street Kensington, Notting Hill Gate, White City, Wood Lane, Hammersmith, other Hammersmith, Ravenscourt Park.

After the FNC and parkrun I took it easy and literally went for a walk in the park. Also notable for reasonable use of the Drain.

[MylesHSG]

My route:

Oval - Stockwell (Northern)
Stockwell - Finsbury Park (Victoria)
Finsbury Park - Kings Cross St. Pancreas (Piccadilly)
Kings Cross St. Pancreas - London Bridge (Northern)
London Bridge - Westminster (Jubilee)
Westminster - St. James's Park (Circle)
St. James's Park - Embankment (District)
Embankment - Leicester Square (Northern)
Leicester Square - Holburn (Piccadilly)
Holburn - Notting Hill Gate (Central)
Notting Hill Gate - Earls Court (District)
Earls Court - Ravenscourt Park (District)
Ravenscourt Park - Hammersmith (District)
Hammersmith - Wood Lane (Hammersmith & City)

My time was 2 hours, 11 Minutes, 18 Seconds and 31 Milliseconds.....the exact same time to the millisecond of The Raven, with a COMPLETELY different route, with a different finishing station!

[The Raven]

Oval Stockwell Oxford Circus Notting Hill Gate High Street Kensington Notting Hill Gate White City Wood Lane Hammersmith Hammersmith Ravenscourt Park Embankment Leicester Square Waterloo Bank KXSP Arsenal

That was bizarre that both me and Myles had the EXACT same time. You'd struggle to do that on purpose!

[The Orange One]

My route:

Oval Stockwell (by Northern) Victoria (by VIctoria) Westminster (by District) Waterloo (by Jubilee) Bank (by Waterloo and City) White City (by Central) Wood Lane (by foot) Hammersmith H&C (by Circle) Ravenscourt Park (by foot) Earl's Court (by District) HSK (by Wimbleware) Knightsbridge (by number 9 bus) Arsenal (by Piccadilly).

I hadn't opened the envelope by the time I reached the bottom of the escalator, so it was down to Nozza that I made that southbound train. Oncoming passengers at Stockwell meant I got to the front of those heading to the Victoria line, and Andi and me made the train. I was with Andi until Bank (one particularly memorable moment at Waterloo involved him dashing down a particularly long dead end passage to the Jubilee Line lift, reaching the end, saying "SHIT!!", then running back the way he had come), where he pulled ahead by running up the travelator (I took the Greathead Shield tunnel because I prefer long flat stretches then stairs to long uphill stretches). We waited for a while outside Shepherd's Bush so a train could enter the central road, and as a consequence a Hammersmith and City train was missed, giving rise to a 5 minute wait, during which I met up with Peter Smyth again (had met him and Nick at Waterloo for the Drain ride, then they all disappeared at Bank). I also met the Kev/Nozza/Junior trio on the run from White City to Wood Lane. Ran from Hammersmith to Ravenscourt Park due to a lack of westbound District line trains. 5 minute wait at Earl's Court for a Wimbleware was unpleasant, but it's uphill from Earl's Court so I wasn't running that. A Circle was pulling out as we arrived at HSK, so as the Olympia service wasn't leaving any time soon and the next southbound was 5 minutes off, it was the number 9 bus to Knightsbridge. Firstly the driver shut his doors in my face (I ran to the next stop and smirked as he pulled up), then the bell was dinged at every stop by a silly little child. Honestly, the bus was terminating at Hyde Park Corner, it should have been quite a bit faster! Came across large crowds of Arsenal fans on the Picc at Knightsbridge, but they got off to let people on at every stop then queued for the exits at Arsenal in complete silence.

I wasn't reversing at Arsenal to get to the pub, nope, so I went to Finsbury Park to pick up a southbound train. Long queues onto the Victoria, long queues onto the Piccadilly so I went up a totally empty staircase to the National Rail platforms and took an almost empty 313 into King's Cross Mainline - probably the most pleasant train ride of the day! I met Glen at Finsbury Park after the challenge had finished.

[DrainBrain]

Oval Stockwell (by Northern) Victoria (by VIctoria) Westminster (by District) Waterloo (by Jubilee)
...
I met up with Peter Smyth again (had met him and Nick at Waterloo for the Drain ride, then they all disappeared at Bank)

So, by the time you'd done St. James's Park and got back to Waterloo I'd only been to Stockwell and back to Waterloo via Kennington. Bearing in mind it later took me nearly 15 minutes to walk from Green Park to St. James's Park, I'm surprised I wasn't further behind at the end.

[The Orange One]

Oval Stockwell (by Northern) Victoria (by VIctoria) Westminster (by District) Waterloo (by Jubilee)
...
I met up with Peter Smyth again (had met him and Nick at Waterloo for the Drain ride, then they all disappeared at Bank)

So, by the time you'd done St. James's Park and got back to Waterloo I'd only been to Stockwell and back to Waterloo via Kennington.

Yes. To be fair, the Northern line takes one heck of a long time to get from Kennington to Waterloo.

Also, when Tangy comes up with the results, what are the rules on the twist for Round 5 (April 18th, for those who were not present)? Is it the one where we pick the twist or not? Because if we get to pick the twist, we need to pick the twist.

On the day before Round 5, I will have a driving test halfway across the country. If I pass my test, I will be able to get to Round 5 in time because I will be able to drive. If I fail my test, I will have to take the train, something I'm sure is unheard of on this forum . I just hope when the stations come out, North Acton is not on them (look at the closures!)

[leamfarrar]

Been busy with work, but for a first attempt... I was pretty impressed with what I did. My route was below, and I will say that I do believe I ended up on a train after most others as I didn't run down the escalator at Oval, and then got lost as I headed to the northbound platform instead of southbound, so it delayed me a bit... and then a mixup early on which cost me 10 (or so) minutes that I ended up not needing to do...but as I said; for a first attempt, I felt I did pretty well. I will eventually write this up onto my train blog (when I get a holiday)

N.B. my time was 2hr 23mins 10secs (and 39 milliseconds)

Start at Oval. Pick up Oval
Oval - Stockwell (Northern). Pick up Stockwell
Stockwell - Victoria (Victoria).
Victoria - St James Park (Circle). Pick up St. James Park
St James Park - Victoria (District)
Victoria - Finsbury Park (Victoria). Pick up Green Park & Oxford Circus
Finsbury Park - Leicester Square (Piccadilly). Pick up Arsenal & Leicester Square
Leicester Square - Waterloo (Northern). Pick up Waterloo
Waterloo - Embankment (Northern)
Embankment - High Street Kensington (Circle). Pick up High Street Kensington (here was the second delay, I could have picked up St James Park later on instead of first up)
High Street Kensington - Earls Court (District). (changed here for what became no reason)
Earls Court - Barons Court (Piccadilly). (this was a useless train, as I was hoping to catch a connecting District, but to no avail)
Barons Court - Ravenscourt Park (District). Pick up Ravenscourt Park (missed a District line going back by about 5 steps)
Ravenscourt Park - Hammersmith D&P (District).
run to Hammersmith H&C... then the stuff up with the trains, getting routed to Platform 3 instead of Platform 1
Hammersmith H&C - Wood Lane. Pick up Shepard's Bush Market & Wood Lane
run to White City
White City - Bank (Central). Pick up Marble Arch, Bond Street & Bank

I then headed to Covent Gardens to do a quick bit of shopping and then onwards to the pub where I proceeded to win my first game of darts ever by hitting a double 11 on my first throw to win. Pretty stoked by that one. I was also pretty stoked to have made it from the pub to Liverpool Street in less than 30 minutes since the final (which myself and Glen, as a team) made it to didn't finish until 5:30pm and I had a 6:03pm train back to Lowestoft (well, Billericay that day). Left the pub at 5:36pm and was sitting on my train at 5:59pm. I had even taken a wrong turn and ended up running down to Euston Square instead of Holborn like I had planned.

Was such a great day, can't wait for the next one and I'll be ensuring that this time I will stay in London that weekend so I can stick around for longer

[tangy]

Don't trust the boards at Hamm H&C especially if there has been a long gap in service. Passengers entering at Hammersmith are directed onto one train, whilst another departs "empty" to pick up the waiting passengers at Goldhawk Road, Wood Lane etc. therefore spreading the load between two trains rather than all cramming in the first.