Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by A Challenge »

tractakid wrote:
RJSRdg wrote:I've not had any replies yet to my requests for someone to text me the stations when the run gets underway so I could join in (albeit behind time) when I got to Stratford as I can't make 12:30. I had been thinking that if I hadn't received confirmation that someone was going to text them to me I wouldn't go up as I wouldn't want to have a wasted trip to Stratford. However, thinking about it a bit more I think I'll probably head back to Stratford anyway. If i've had a text by the time I get there I'll follow on behind on the R15 - if not, I'll head back to the centre and attempt the Bottle.

Either way,hopefully I'll see some of you at the Bricklayer's afterwards.

Richard
I should be able to do this.

Please ignore everything I said about the gig. I'll be at the Bricklayers playing darts with everyone else. Not that it's a bad alternative but it's not what was planned a mere 15 minutes ago...
Has it been cancelled then? I am sorry about that but I imagine that from the comments that you aren't too annoyed if this has happened. Anyway, Good luck to all on the Random 15, and it will be interesting, as it always is, to read the write ups of how the challenge went. Again, good luck to all.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by The Raven »

Good luck everyone! Wish I was taking part!
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by JBA »

Well done everybody today! I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you next month.

JBA
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by hopeful traveller »

Fun, apart from a dreadful finish. Starting at Stratford International, on the on train start I wondered about whether to do West India Quay or Bethnal Green first. I decided for West India Quay - but several others had the same idea. And so we all piled off the train at Stratford to sprint over to the other DLR branch. Hugo won the race and managed to make the train. I did too (yes, I ran and didn't come last in a run), but the others didn't. At this point Hugo and I decided to team up, in a revisit of the LibDem/Conservative coalition (orange and blue). We therefore picked up West India Quay on the way down to Canary Wharf, where we ran to the other Canary Wharf, and made a Jubilee Line connection with one minute on the board. We took this to Canada Water, then went up the East London Line to Whitechapel.

The next move was to take out Monument, Bethnal Green, and Old Street. We wanted to go Westbound, but we saw 18 minutes on my app for a Westbound District :shock:, so we went Eastbound instead to Mile End and decided to come back down the Central to take out Bethnal Green that way. What followed is referred to in common parlance as a "faff": Bank - Cannon Street - Monument - Bank. Both these changes were good ones, waiting under a minute for both. To make matters better, the Northbound Northern Line train at Bank was an Edgware one ( :D ) so that meant we didn't have to change at Camden Town as we took out Old Street and Hampstead.

We got out at Hampstead and ran down the road to the LOROL. We knew we had nine minutes to make it to Finchley Road and Frognal, so we paced ourselves (and I almost got run over :shock: :oops: ) before we found we had paced it correctly and made it to Finchley Road and Frognal with three minutes to spare. Up to West Hampstead, where we sprinted down the road (and no traffic, which was a bonus) to West Hampstead Jubilee, where Hugo was a bit cheeky and held the doors for me - I've never been good at running down stairs since the "South Kensington incident" four years ago (bloody hell, was it really that long ago?) where I fell down the stairs within 10 seconds of the challenge starting. After an epic dive into the West Hampstead train, we went up to Willesden Green, turned around, switching to the Met at Finchley Road, before changing at Baker Street for the train to Edgware Road. It said three minutes on the board - at that point, that was our joint worst change up until that point.

At Edgware Road (Circle/District/H&C) we got out and ran to Edgware Road (Bakerloo), Hugo taking me a completely bonkers way. Nonetheless, we made a train that was pulling in. However, its stalling time was a bit long, and so when we got to Oxford Circus, we just missed a Central Line train - we got on the one a minute behind and went to Tottenham Court Road, where - again - we just missed a Southbound Northern Line - and again we caught one one minute behind. At Leicester Square, we - yet again - just missed a train (thanks to my incompetence on getting down the stairs) and caught one two minutes behind, knocking off Hyde Park Corner.

Then it all got a bit crap. We worked out we'd just miss the Kensington (Olympia) train at Earl's Court, so we decided (after much deliberation) to catch a Wimbledon train to West Brompton, take the LOROL up to Ken Oly and come back down on the District. However, the Wimbledon train we were planning to catch turned into a Richmond train, meaning we had no option by that point but to just sit and wait for the 1504 up to Kensington (Olympia). 15 minutes gone, like that. In those 15 minutes three Wimbledon trains passed (not helpful).

Up to KPA, and then down on the LOROL before switching at West Brompton for the Wimbledon train - a whopping 12 minute wait really was taking the biscuit, before finishing at East Putney in a time of... over to you, BERC.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by The Orange One »

Stratford International :arrow: Stratford :arrow: Canary Wharf DLR :arrow: Canary Wharf Jubilee :arrow: Canada Water :arrow: Whitechapel :arrow: Mile End :arrow: Bank :arrow: Cannon Street :arrow: Monument :arrow: Bank :arrow: Hampstead :arrow: Finchley Road and Frognal :arrow: West Hampstead Overground :arrow: West Hampstead Jubilee :arrow: Willesden Green :arrow: Finchley Road :arrow: Baker Street :arrow: Edgware Road Circle :arrow: Edgware Road Bakerloo :arrow: Oxford Circus :arrow: Tottenham Court Road :arrow: Leicester Square :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Kensington Olympia :arrow: West Brompton :arrow: East Putney.

Well, as you have probably read, I teamed up with the hopeful traveller this time. I'm not quite sure why everyone piled into the front carriage at Stratford International when all interchanges from that train (apart from maybe Canning Town) have door positions at the back! Anyway, I was straight onto a DLR train to Canary Wharf, followed by Rhys, followed by the doors closing. Somehow I'd lost Peter and Tangy, but not Rhys - probably to do with Stratford International idiocy!

What followed were a few of the usual mind games before we both realised we'd got pretty similar routes, then decided to team up. Switched at Canary Wharf for the Jubilee Line (not quite sure why everyone went for Heron Quays, it's 50m difference between the two which any decent tube challenger can cover in 20 seconds - less time than it takes for a train to pass between the two), running by the side of the dock. Up to Canada Water, then the Whitechapel fiasco (clearly the engineering works had f***ed up the District Line completely). This meant we had to approach Bank from the Central Line, rather than the District, meaning we had to do Bank :arrow: Cannon Street :arrow: Monument :arrow: Bank. This is actually more enjoyable than it sounds, though pretty much as pointless as it sounds. Up to Hampstead, then my new favourite run (in this direction only, of course!). Not Rhys's favourite run, apparently, despite it basically being throwing yourself into the arms of gravity.

Finchley Road and Frognal 3 minutes sounded good, we soon boarded the Overground. West Hampstead did indeed see me hold the doors for Rhys, though I think I let them go about half a second too early as they clipped him. Up to Willesden Green, down to Finchley Road (that cross platform was more tight than I would have liked), to Baker Street, to Edgware Road Circle . Traffic on the A40 meant I took Rhys through the subway rather than on the surface to Edgware Road Bakerloo, but it cost us nothing as the train was pulling in as we arrived on the platform. To Oxford Circus, to TCR, to Leicester Square, to Earl's Court, stop.

I knew there was an Overground service heading north from West Brompton at 1453 to connect onto a District out of Olympia. I knew the WTT dictated there was a Wimbledon train leaving Earl's Court at 1452, which may or may not connect onto the Overground. I also knew that it's a very short distance from Earl's Court to West Brompton, and suggested we run this. This was not taken with much enthusiasm; I briefly considered abandoning my coalition partner to do the run myself, but at any rate we arrived late at Earl's Court and reached the District platform at around 1450 - probably not enough time for me to do the run. Said Wimbledon train had morphed into a Richmond because as I said earlier, the engineering works had f~~~ed up the District (apparently Ealing Broadway was receiving 3tph on the District Line!!). We had no choice but to wait for the next Olympia as we'd never have reached Olympia in time to get the train out. During this time Andrew and Steve caught up with us and we finished the last two stations very slowly and painfully.

Three worst waits:
3) 12 minute wait for southbound District Line at West Brompton to East Putney.
2) 14 minute wait for Olympia train at Earl's Court.
1) 18 minute wait for westbound District Line at Whitechapel.

Lesson learnt:
Do not attempt to use the District Line when accompanied by a person called Rhys.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by Sarnian »

I teamed up with James (crypto) again.

Our route was:

Stratford International :arrow: Stratford :arrow: Bethnal Green :arrow: Mile End :arrow: Monument :arrow: Old Street :arrow: London Bridge :arrow: Canary Wharf :arrow: Other Canary Wharf :arrow: Bank :arrow: Tottenham Court Road :arrow: Mornington Crescent :arrow: Hampstead :arrow: Swiss Cottage :arrow: Willesden Green :arrow: Finchley Road :arrow: Baker Street :arrow: Edgware Road H&C :arrow: Other Edgware Road :arrow: Oxford Circus :arrow: Green Park :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Olympia :arrow: West Brompton :arrow: East Putney.

We hadn't made sure to check door positions for doubling back at Bethnal Green and we were in slightly the wrong position for the cross-passage to the waiting train. Fortunately, Josh held the doors open for us. Thanks!

We lost many of our fellow challengers at Mile End, but Tangy was heading the same way and Alex turned up on our platform, although it wasn't the one we wanted. Tangy had gone by Monument.

No particularly interesting interchanges happened in the loop around back to Bank. At Tottenham Court Road, having positioned ourselves correctly for the lifts at Hampstead, we absent-mindedly boarded a High Barnet train, and didn't realise until Euston. Given there was an Edgware train 2 minutes behind us, we chose not to change platforms at Camden Town, thinking it was unlikely we'd make a Bank -> Edgware train, so we hopped off at Mornington Crescent.

We had planned to run from Hampstead to Finchley Road, but I wasn't looking forward to it particularly. I had a quick look at the bus map in Hampstead station, saw that one (the 268) went to Swiss Cottage and Finchley Road, then a 268 came down the hill and we jumped on it. Doubled back at Willesden Green, then at Finchley Road a Metropolitan was just pulling in behind us. At Baker Street, we ran up the stairs and saw a H&C train coming in to the westbound platform. We sprinted and made it, which made a nice change from our previous experience at that platform (having to wait 8 minutes there in the last R15).

The run between the Edgware Roads was fine, and it was here that we were looking up the times to Olympia. There was one at 15:24 and it was about 15:05 at this point. It was touch and go all the way through the changes at Oxford Circus and Green Park, both of which where we arrived to find the train half in the platform on its way out (but another one or two minutes behind). Arrival at Earls Court was 15:23 and having run up the escalator and the stairs to platform 1 the train arrived at the same time we did.

12 minutes for a southbound Overground, then a change at West Brompton (with an 8 minute wait there) for an East Putney finish.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by RJSRdg »

A very enjoyable day. As folk will know, I hadn't expected to make the start as I was planning to visit the Maidenhead model railway exhibition in the morning. As it turned out I arrived at the exhibition sooner than I intended to and was allowed in well before official opening time which meant I had time to see it all and speak to the people I needed to speak to and catch an earlier train from Maidenhead. At that stage I texted Tangy to let him know that I should be able to make the start after all. However only after texting Tangy did I check travelinesoutheast to find out that the half-hour earlier start from Maidenhead only officially got me to SI DLR four minutes earlier (12:34 vice 12:38) as the earlier train to Padd stopped at more places and didn't tie in nicely with a Javelin from KXSP. However a quick change at Padd got me on to an earlier H&C train which in turn gained me a CentralLine train to Stratford. All I needed to do now was to get through Westfield.... Unfortunately having done so the signage for the DLR station disappeared and I found myself at the bottom of a set of stone steps which I remembered going up on my way back to SI from the Olympic Park during the 2012 Games. Only when I got to the top did I remember that in 2012 I got to the top and discovered they didn't lead to SI. However despite this I still made it to SI on time, feeling as if I'd already started an R15!

(At this point of course I offer my apologies for being perhaps a little demanding over my requests for someone to text me the list of stations in the run up to the event. Sorry guys!)

So, on with the R15 itself. I'd just about worked out where all the stations were on the map by the time everyone else jumped out at Stratford. A quick glance back at the map revealed why and I did likewise, making my way through to the other DLR for the run down to West India Quay and Canary Wharf. Quick nip from one station to the other at CW, just missing a Jubilee Line train but there was another just a couple of minutes behind. At this stage panic set in as I convinced myself I'd left my stopwatch on the DLR! One of the other challengers (sorry,I can't remember who it was!) gave me a time check against his (exactly 28 minutes gone at that stage), and I set my phone stopwatch going, making a mental note to add 28 minutes at the end. Ultimately though, that wasn't needed as after he got off at Canada Water I found the missing stopwatch still ticking away merrily in my coat pocket!

Over to Waterloo,with a wait of around 4 minutes for a stopping train to Wimbledon*, which was reached with 55 minutes on the clock, straight on to a District Line train which was about to depart. Knocked off East Putney at just over the hour mark. A glance across to the DMI on the Overground platforms at West Brompton showed a northbound train due in three minutes, and on arrival at Kensington Olympia there was a District Line train waiting to take me to Earl's Court. Here I nearly forgot to get off but finally dived through the closing doors and down to the Piccadilly Line (nearly went down the up escalator!) for Hyde Park Corner, change at Green Park for Baker Street, feeling quite pleased with myself for having made the nice connections for Olympia. A quick bit of thinking on the way to Baker Street led to the realisation that it was probably slightly quicker - all other things being equal - to do Edgware Road (Bakerloo) next as this would slightly shorten the run between the two Edgware Road stations (southernmost platform to northernmost platform) and the connection from Circle back to Jubilee at Baker Street.

Unfortunately things unravelled somewhat at Edgware Rd (B) - after passing the sign pointing left towards Edgware Road (H&C, C, D), I passed under the flyover and kept going! With no sign of the other station up ahead, I hopped on to a nicely-timed bus, and it was only when said bus approached Marble Arch that I realised I had already passed the station I needed before I even got on it! Excruciatingly the bus then sat in traffic for several minutes before reaching the next stop (of course had it been a proper bus I wouldn't have needed to be at a stop to get off!). Crossed the road to the northbound stop where 4 buses were stopped - all of which moved off as I approached, so I lost another couple of minutes as a result! Finally making it back to the flyover and locating the sub-surface station, I then had difficulty locating my Travelcard, and had the agony of watching the next train to Baker Street set off as I descended the steps and had to wait five minutes for the next one. So I reckon I probably lost about 15 minutes between those two stations!

Finally back at Baker Street, I briefly considered hopping on the Met train in the bay platform but couldn't remember offhand whether there would be opportunity to change back to the Jubilee again before Wembley Park and didn't want to waste time consulting a map so I decided against it and took a Jubilee Line train to Willesden Green,from where I doubled back to Finchley Road, passing the Met train I'd seen earlier in the process. Up the steps across the road from FR,my tendon decided it had done enough running for one day so took a bus up Fitzjohn's Avenue to Hampstead.Only about a one minute wait there for a train to Bank via Old Street, remembering to travel in the front coach to be nearer the escalator link to Monument. With well over three hours now gone I now had to wait five minutes for a Barking-bound train as Circle and Tower Hill trains passed first - the worst connection of the run with the exception of Edgware Road.

Through Whitechapel to Mile End, change to the Central and through Bethnal Green when I glance up at the overhead maps and discovered to my horror that TCR was marked as closed on the Central Line. I was on my feet to change to the Piccadilly Line at Holborn thence Northern at Leicester Square when I realised that the map was ouut of date and sat down again, reaching TCR with a time of 3:47:04, but had it not been for the Edgware Road debacle I would have been close to 3:30 and maybe a place higher up the ranking. Pleased though to have finished higher than last and got some points on the board!

* On leaving Waterloo I realised I'd made the schoolboy error again of going to the furthest point early on rather than finishing there - probably because of the order I found places on the map!

After the meet-up I went down to St James's Theatre to watch Around the World in 80 Days (closes on 17th), which seemed to have a lot in common with Tube Challenging except I didn't meet any beautiful Indian princesses or get arrested!

Thanks to Tangy for organising and the generator for coming up with such an interesting set of stations.

Richard
Last edited by RJSRdg on 10 Jan 2016, 12:52, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by tangy »

The BERC here with the results of round 3 of the 2015/16 Random 15 Championship.

This was a twist round with the DLR included (zones 1 and 2), the generator provided a wide spread of stations but only two DLR stations (one of which was the starting station).

These stations that were generated:
--Stratford International DLR (start)
--Canada Water
--Old Street
--Willesden Green
--Edgware Road (Circle)
--Monument
--West India Quay
--Edgware Road (Bak)
--Tottenham Court Road
--East Putney
--Hyde Park Corner
--Hampstead
--Bethnal Green LU
--Whitechapel
--Kensington Olympia

We had 16 challengers split into 10 teams, so in reverse order:

DSQ Peter Smyth (did not visit Monument).
DSQ Alex Kneller (did not visit East Putney).
DSQ Sam Inman and Aaron Dadd (failed to visit Whitechapel correctly, called on Overground platforms only).
7th: Nick Gardner finishing at Tottenham Court road in a time of 04:01:57
6th: Damian Cook, Andrew Baker and Josh Ageros finishing at Kensington Olympia in a time of 03:53:00
5th: Richard Standing finishing at Tottenham Court Road in a time of 03:47:04
4th: Sam Smith and James Ross finishing at East Putney in a time of 03:25:10
3rd: Tangy finishing at Kensington Olympia in a time of 03:13:11
=1st: Andrew Chilcraft and Steve McSherry finishing at East Putney in a time of 02:54:53
=1st: Rhys Benjamin and The Orange One finishing at East Putney in a time of 02:54:53

I must thank the challengers for their honesty as I originally failed to pick up that two of the DSQ teams did not visit all 15 stations when I was initially judging each teams route. More sound route checking required next time!

The leader board now looks like this:

1st: The Orange One: 32 points [3 rounds attended]
=2nd: Andrew Chilcraft: 30 points [3]
=2nd: Steve McSherry: 30 points [3]
4th: Tangy: 24 points [3]
5th: Andrew Baker: 21 points [3]
6th: Josh Ageros: 20 points [3]
7th: Peter Smyth: 17 points [3]
8th: Harry Ageros: 15 points [2]
9th: Glen Bryant: 14 points [2]
=10th: Kevin Brown: 12 points [2]
=10th: Rhys Benjamin: 12 points [1]
=12th: Sam Smith: 10 points [2]
=12th: James Ross: 10 points [2]
=12th: Leam Farrar: 10 points [1]
15th: Nick Gardner: 7 points [2]
=16th: Richard Martin: 6 points [1]
=16th: Richard Standing: 6 points [1]
18th: Damian Cook: 5 points [1]
19th: Tom Wood: 3 points [1]
=20th: Sam Inman: 0 points [1]
=20th: Aaron Dadd: 0 points [1]
=20th: Alex Kneller: 0 points [1]

Thank you all for attending and round 4 will be held on Saturday 12th March 2016, it will be a normal no-twists event.

Tangy.
The BERC.
Adjudicator of the Alternative Challenges and webmaster of the Tube Challenge "Top Times" website at www.explorerticket.co.uk/tubechallenge

This is a Central line train to "Woodford via Hainault"- sadly, not no more!

Tangy.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by DrainBrain »

RJSRdg wrote: At this stage panic set in as I convinced myself I'd left my stopwatch on the DLR! One of the other challengers (sorry,I can't remember who it was!) gave me a time check against his (exactly 28 minutes gone at that stage), and I set my phone stopwatch going, making a mental note to add 28 minutes at the end.
That would be me. :)

As usual, I took a gentle meander around various parts of London. This was a tricky set of stations.

My route:
Stratford International :arrow: Stratford :arrow: DLR to Canary Wharf :arrow: London Bridge :arrow: on foot to Monument :arrow: Mile End :arrow: Bank :arrow: Hampstead :arrow: bus to Swiss Cottage :arrow: Willesden Green :arrow: Baker Street :arrow: Edgware Road (Bak) :arrow: on foot to Edgware Road (t'other one) :arrow: High Street Kensington :arrow: on foot to Kensington (Olympia) :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: East Putney :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Leicester Square :arrow: Tottenham Court Road

Hadn't really sorted out my route by the time I got to Stratford, so headed down to do West India Quay for more thinking time. Saw RSDRdg on the Jubilee, but I hopped off at London Bridge, where I probably didn't take the best exit, but found my way across to Monument easily enough. Two minutes for a Barking train, so that was good. To Mile End, back to Bank and straight onto an Edgware bound train just arriving in the platform.

Got off at Hampstead - new territory for me - and had no phone signal. Guessed I needed to head downhill and then checked the first bus stop where a 268 was just arriving. That was good enough for me and we trundled off to Swiss Cottage. Up to Willesden Green, back to Baker Street, staying on the Jubilee to change below ground to the Bakerloo to Edgware Road. I passed tangy going the opposite way just outside ER(Bak), then it was across to the other ER and down to High Street Kensington.

Got disoriented coming out of HSK and tried heading towards the brighter sky (3 o'clock-ish, sun should be south-west-ish), but went about 100 metres the wrong way before my phone map loaded. Walked down to KenO where I had to wait 15 minutes for the shuttle - which was populated by a whole gaggle of tube challengers when it arrived.

Then an uneventful, and slow, final section doubling back to East Putney, Earl's Court to Leicester Square (where the four hour mark passed as I waited for my final train) and so to TCR. At least I was near the pub.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

Interesting to note the increasing use of technology advance door positions to timings of trains makes me think is there left.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by RJSRdg »

For some reason I couldn't pick up a network most of the time so everything was done by guesswork/the A to Z, with some use made of the DMI at West Brompton.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by alexmcmotor »

Well, seen as everyone else has done them...

This was my first ever R15 so I was aiming simply to finish in 4 hours, whether I came last or not. I kind of succeeded, but also kind of didn't...

Stratford International :arrow: Stratford :arrow: Bethnal Green :arrow: Mile End :arrow: Bow Road :arrow: Bow Church :arrow: Canary Wharf (DLR) :arrow: Canary Wharf (Jubilee) :arrow: Canada Water :arrow: Whitechapel :arrow: Monument :arrow: Bank :arrow: KXSP :arrow: Holborn :arrow: TCR :arrow: Leicester Square :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: PUTNEY BRIDGE!!!! (Should have been East Putney but I am an idiot and didn't double check my map) :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Kensington (Olympia) :arrow: HSK (on 9 bus) :arrow: Edgware Road (SS) :arrow: Edgware Road (B) :arrow: Baker Street :arrow: Willesden Green :arrow: Golders Green (on 460 bus) :arrow: Hampstead.

So it only took me to get to Stratford before I started making mistakes. From the DLR I ran to the Jubilee line, sat on the train for about 30 seconds before realising that actually that was a terrible idea, and ran off again just before the doors closed, and hence missed the first Central Line that everyone else was on. Arriving at Mile End I spotted 2 guys who I feel really bad for not remembering the names off, but I ran over to them and chatted, and as 2 Districts pulled in I suddenly realised I actually needed to go East not West, so just left those 2 and darted back over the foot bridge. I walked to Bow Church, something I would come to regret as a DLR pulled out of the platform as I came down the stairs. The departure board said 3 minutes. 6 minutes later, I left Bow Church. Apparently even the DLR suffers from London Underground Minutes. Running through Canary Wharf was fine, had another case of LU Minutes at Canada Water as a train 2 minutes away took 5 minutes to arrive. Just missed a train at Whitechapel (although I now remember it was an H&C so it was irrelevant anyway) and waited about 3 minutes for the next District to Monument. At Bank I ran into Tangy and... others that I should really remember the name of (sorry to everyone I forget the name of, I'm terrible with names). I realised we were obviously all planning to go to Hampstead, so I decided why not spice the race up a bit, and I threw caution to the wind and dived off the train as the doors were closing at KXSP and headed down to the Picc. Had mostly 1-2 minute connections and then for some reason, I had a significant brain fart and thought I only had to go to Putney Bridge. I waited 6 minutes for a train back up from Putney Bridge, meaning I would have had oodles of time to get down to and change at East Putney and still make the same train. Not that I realised that until I got my route ajudicated in the pub at the end.......

Anyway, I got a 4 minute wait onto the 2:44 Olympia train, and then jogged down to the road and caught a bus along HSK to the station. Had a perfect connection at HSK, but must have just missed a train later at Edgware Road Bakerloo as I had a 3 minute wait (for a H&W train, hence a bit of cursing that I wasn't on an FNC). My Jubilee line North from Baker Street was regulated a bit which was annoying, and after surfacing at Finchley Road I was googling like mad trying to find the quickest way to Hampstead, knowing that if I took the Overground to Finchley Road & Frognal, I'd have to jump on a train in Hampstead and finish at the next station over. I found that there were 2 frequent bus routes from Willesden Green to Golders Green, so I banked on that, and as luck would have it I only waited about 2 minutes for the bus, which although it was slow through Willesen itself, quickly scythed through random bits of North London that I don't know, and I just, JUST missed a train at Golders Green, and had to wait 5 minutes for the next one which was unlucky, and I finished at Hampstead with a time of 3h 30m 40.9s. Which although more than half an hour behind the winner, had I actually visited East Putney, would have meant for my first R15 I would have done pretty respectably.

I absolutely loved my first R15, and can't wait to see everyone again for the next one :D
6 FNC Attempts
5 Completions: PB 17:52:44


R15 Victories: 2015-16 R5, 2018-19 R4
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tractakid
The Twilight Zone
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by tractakid »

alexmcmotor wrote: :arrow: PUTNEY BRIDGE!!!! (Should have been East Putney but I am an idiot and didn't double check my map)
Thankfully the one time I got the wrong station, I went too far. The bad thing was I was with others at the time and didn't understand why they'd all gone off the train!
*insert boasting about notable tube accomplishments here*
A2
Zone 4
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Joined: 02 Oct 2005, 01:12
Location: Stevenage

Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by A2 »

tractakid wrote:
alexmcmotor wrote: :arrow: PUTNEY BRIDGE!!!! (Should have been East Putney but I am an idiot and didn't double check my map)
Thankfully the one time I got the wrong station, I went too far. The bad thing was I was with others at the time and didn't understand why they'd all gone off the train!
But tractakid.. West Action is BEST Acton! (unless you were supposed to be only going to East Acton). You carrying on made me paranoid for about the next hour of that challenge that I'd got off a stop too early :(
- Andrew
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tractakid
The Twilight Zone
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Joined: 15 Nov 2011, 20:04
Location: Milton Keynes

Re: Random 15 Championship 2015/16: Round 3

Post by tractakid »

Ahaha, it would have been interesting if you'd gone back to visit a station you didn't actually need!
*insert boasting about notable tube accomplishments here*
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