Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

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Going Underground
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by Going Underground »

parkrun / spoons update

Attending
GU
tractakid
michael_churchill
J.Nichols-Ageros
xcooler123

parkrun Highbury Fields
GU
xcooler123

parkrun at Linford Wood
tractakid

Spoons brekkie at The Whie Swan Islington
GU
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

seems this will be well unattended again bang bang the berc failure yo announce dates in advance
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crypto
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by crypto »

Attending
GU
tractakid
michael_churchill
J.Nichols-Ageros
xcooler123
crypto

parkrun Highbury Fields
GU
xcooler123

parkrun at Linford Wood
tractakid

Spoons brekkie at The Whie Swan Islington
GU
palkanetoijala31

Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by palkanetoijala31 »

**** it again I'm going to be controversial and say again because of the late decision by the berc Low attendance for 1st rd what a surprise. if only people listen to me instead of ******* criticism :lol:
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by mrredrunner100 »

Attending
GU
tractakid
michael_churchill
J.Nichols-Ageros
xcooler123
crypto
Mrredrunner100

parkrun Highbury Fields
GU
xcooler123

parkrun at Linford Wood
tractakid

Spoons brekkie at The Whie Swan Islington
GU
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18:10:37 :)
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by RJSRdg »

Apologies from Chris and David - they had it in mind it was next week and now can't make it.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by michael_churchill »

As this will be my first time and I've never met anyone before, just in case there is another group of anoraks hanging around Temple station, you will be able to identify me by my t-shirt from the Hard Rock Cafe Brussels.
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crypto
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by crypto »

I'll kick off the reports then. I got off to a bad start by cutting the start very fine. Ran up the stairs at Temple to find everyone rushing down past me. Andrew grabbed me on the way past proclaiming "you're on my team."

Blackfriars was on the list, so naturally everyone headed for the eastbound platform, but the trains were not rushing through. We boarded our first train with ten minutes on the clock, before realising that it was the wrong line, so another change at Monument was needed for a District to Whitechapel. Smooth sailing for a while, changing at Whitechapel, Canada Water and Waterloo for a SWT service to Vauxhall, completing the one word stations at Pimlico.

Warwick Avenue and Caledonian Road (via Warren Street) were pains that are far away, so long double backs were in order. Following Caledonian Road, we took a zigzag down to the Central Line where we planned to leave at St Paul's and run to Mansion House. What actually happened was that we left the train, sprinted up the escalators and realised we'd actually left at Chancery Lane without noticing. Oops. Instead, we had a rather longer run to Blackfriars, where we picked up Hugo and Josh for the rest of the journey (despite our best efforts to shake them off).

After working our way through Monument, London Bridge, Canada Water and Whitechapel, we had a decision to make: reverse at Bromley-by-Bow and get the ELL to Highbury and Islington, or carry on and risk the Stratford Overground. We risked it... it didn't work.

We finished around three hours, five minutes after catching a Victoria to Finsbury Park.

So, a summary...

Temple, Monument, Whitechapel (via Blackfriars), Canada Water, Waterloo, Vauxhall, Oxford Circus, Warwick Avenue, Oxford Circus, KXSP, Caledonian Road, Holborn, Chancery Lane, run to Blackfriars, Monument/Bank, London Bridge, Canada Water, Whitechapel, West Ham, Stratford, Highbury and Islington, Finsbury Park.
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Going Underground
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by Going Underground »

Just to confirm that the stations were as follows and the number shown after was the order I visited along with my team mate A2

Temple - 1
Monument - 6
Canada Water - 9
Bromley-by-Bow - 15
Warwick Avenue - 11
Blackfriars - 5
Warren Street - 12
Pimlico - 2
Waterloo - 4
Southwark - 3
Highbury & Islington - 14
Whitechapel - 7
Mile End - 8
Caledonian Road - 13
Mansion House - 10

Considering the twist this could have been a lot worse with many in the South East area of Z1-2, especially the single word station...

Also a decent attendance despite the worries of 12 challengers :)

Overall I think this twist isn't too bad and certainly requires a different approach!
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by The Orange One »

Best efforts to shake us off? I was waiting at the end of that corridor at West Ham for about 10 seconds before I even saw any of you come into sight...

Anyway, my turn for the writeups methinks.

So I joined up with Josh and after starting from the roof of Temple station (yes, the roof) and noticing a handy one word Monument, we pelted down the stairs to see a train pull away. Billions of blue blistering barnacles... nevermind, probably a Circle (as it turned out), time to come up with an actual plan.

Having identified the one word stations as Blackfriars, Whitechapel, Southwark, Pimlico, Waterloo and Monument - and more importantly, the three word stations (H&I and BbB) as being both vaguely in the east, our plan was basically to head east, then west, then back east again. So a just under ten minute wait for the first train to knock out Blackfriars and Monument - it was a Circle - then stepping back onto a District to knock out Whitechapel. At Whitechapel, we descended to the Overground to Canada Water to end up on the Jubilee Line, where I missed a train by seconds - figures.

On the way back into town to get Southwark and Waterloo, we had a discussion on how best to get from Waterloo to Pimlico. Josh threw up the (it turned out highly popular) suggestion that surfacing and finding a South West Trains to Vauxhall might be a good idea - I decided against it, partly because in my experience actually getting the first train out of Waterloo when you have less than a minute to find it among 20 platforms can be more luck than judgement, but mainly because with the Victoria Line being extremely frequent and the interchange being short I figured that it wasn't worth the hassle. Anyway, that was the last we saw of anyone for a while.

From Green Park, it was down to Pimlico (finishing off the one word stations in about 54 minutes), back to Oxford Circus, up to Warwick Avenue, back down to Baker Street in a series of nippy cross platform interchanges and we rose to the subsurface to find a Circle approaching, which would do nicely. From there it was across to King's Cross St Pancras for the Caledonian Road doubleback, which was tedious (KX to Caledonian Road is just such a long monotonous journey), and then up to the Victoria Line for the short hop down to Warren Street, where we switched onto the Northern Line to Embankment (where Josh bought food for rip off prices). Onto another Circle Line train to Monument, and at Blackfriars, who should board but the first challengers we'd seen in a very long time - Andrew and James (tractakid and crypto)! I slapped my forehead and said that of course we should have taken the Thameslink from St Pancras to Blackfriars like them. This was immediately followed up by Andrew slapping his forehead saying that of course they should have taken the Thameslink from St Pancras to Blackfriars instead of, well, running from Chancery Lane. So there was that.

Down to the Northern Line at Monument/Bank, thence to the Jubilee Line at London Bridge, across to Canada Water (there was a lot of déjà vu), up to Whitechapel where we finally looked up the Overground times out of Stratford. With only Mile End and then starting to pick off the three worders at Bromley-by-Bow, we needed to figure out the best way round to Highbury and Islington - NLL at Stratford or ELL at Whitechapel? Stratford was less stations, but a potentially longer wait, but discovering an Overground train was leaving Stratford at 1505 meant that so long as we were boarding the Jubilee Line at West Ham by 1500 we should be able to make it. We reached West Ham at 1458, headed down to the Jubilee Line and boarded our train at 1500.

The train then sat at West Ham for about three minutes, dashing any hope of making the connection at Stratford. Back to Whitechapel for the ELL? Greater Anglia via Tottenham Hale? Both of these were foolish suggestions, so when we got to Stratford we did the only thing we could - wait for the 1515, and wait, and wait, then crawl all the way to Highbury and Islington. Deciding to go for a northbound train and Finsbury Park, we duly finished there in three hours, five minutes and forty-six seconds.

To summarise:
Temple :arrow: Monument via Blackfriars :arrow: Whitechapel :arrow: Canada Water :arrow: Green Park via Southwark and Waterloo :arrow: Pimlico :arrow: Oxford Circus :arrow: Warwick Avenue :arrow: Baker Street :arrow: King's Cross St Pancras :arrow: Caledonian Road :arrow: King's Cross St Pancras :arrow: Warren Street :arrow: Embankment :arrow: Monument via Mansion House :arrow: Bank :arrow: London Bridge :arrow: Canada Water :arrow: Whitechapel :arrow: West Ham via Mile End and Bromley-by-Bow :arrow: Stratford :arrow: Highbury and Islington :arrow: Finsbury Park.

Observations (by various challengers):
- No Central Line! And the subsurface was extremely reluctant to give us trains that weren't Circles (as evidenced by the 10 minute at the start for a Circle)
- If the challenge was vanilla, it could be done, reasonably quickly, in precisely 6 trains, and 5 if you ran Waterloo to Pimlico (which to be honest, aren't that far apart as things go)
- Nobody thinks of Thameslink
- 6 weeks is enough time for precisely 11 challengers
- Temple is nice
Last edited by The Orange One on 12 Sep 2016, 13:24, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by xcooler123 »

As far as Tube Challenge events are concerned this was pretty smooth running for me.

Like most people I waited 10 minutes at Temple for the first eastbound train. When it reached Blackfriars, I made a split second decision to double back to Victoria. Down to Vauxhall covering off Pimlico and bumping into Nick, I caught a SWT to Waterloo. Jubilee line to London Bridge to cover off Southwark and then a change to the Northern Line to Bank/Monument to start the crawl up the District Line. Covered off Whitechapel to finish off the single word stations.

Continued up to Mile End to then double back to Whitechapel to catch the ELL. Bumped into Peter which was a good thing as that meant I had caught up about 6-7mins that I had lost as the start. We travelled together to Canada Water and then to London Bridge to catch the Northern Line to Bank/Monument again. Just missed a District line train but another one soon arrived and we covered off Mansion House. When we arrived at Embankment we went our separate ways and I headed up to Warwick Avenue on the Bakerpoo Line. Doubled back to Regents Park to run to Warren Street and catch the Victoria Line to KXSP. Arrived, ran down to the Piccadilly Line and thought I'd missed a train. For the only time ever, I was thankful for Arsenal fans as they were holding the doors for their mates which meant that I could get on. Covered off Caledonian Road to finish the two word stations and headed up to Finsbury Park (not before watching all the Arsenal fans get off to watch their team achieve 4th place again...).

Two stations left, I changed at Finsbury Park onto the Victoria Line down to Highbury & Islington. Ran to the ELL and waited for the train to depart when Peter arrived to catch the same train. We both left and went down to Whitechapel to catch the final train of the day up to Bromley-by-Bow to finish.

Final time was a lovely round 02:50:00

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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by RJSRdg »

Given the ten-minute wait everyone seems to have had at Temple, maybe it would have been quicker to run to Blackfriars and visit Temple on the way back (is it possible to see the train times in the booking hall at Temple?).

Tried to come up with my own route before I studied the reports. Just as well I didn't do it as I would probably have been disqualified for forgetting H&I was three words. However had I done it, I would probably have gone:

Temple*
Blackfriars*
Embankment*
Victoria
Pimlico*
Vauxhall
Waterloo*
Southwark*
London Bridge
Bank
Monument*
Whitechapel*
H&I* (but incorrect)
Finsbury Park
Caledonian Road*
KXSP
Warren Street*
Euston Square (or alternatively carried on down the Vic to Oxford Circus)
Baker Street
Warwick Avenue*
Oxford Circus
St Pauls
Mansion House* (did this run last time)
Mile End*
Bromley-By-Bow*
(and if I realised my error over H&I in time, then up to West Ham, Stratford, H&I and then finish at FP or KXSP - again as per last time!)
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by A Challenge »

The problem with Waterloo :arrow: Vauxhall by SWT is that the trains depart from the lower (1-4) and higher (I think it it is 16 and higher (but not every service), so you may need to look at the departures board to get the best train as if you have to run the other end of the platforms (depending on which line you come from) the that may make it slower. The run is less at Vauxhall as it is many less tracks!
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by michael_churchill »

I'm too embarrassed to disclose my route, which was full of rookie mistakes and a full hour slower than the winners.
I found the experience of my first Random 15... "interesting"... shall we say. Still, it hasn't completely put me off doing more.
It was nice to put faces to names, but I was shocked at how young everyone seemed. At 48, was I the oldest person there?
I think the Labyrinth challenge has scrambled my brains - I now keep spotting them everywhere. When I was changing at Paddington (yes, I know, what was I doing changing at Paddington?) I took the opportunity to photograph number 55, which I had to miss when the Bakerloo wasn't stopping there. In hindsight, that slight delay might have caused me to miss my connection. And finishing at Bronley-by-Bow just reminded me that that Labyrinth has been removed. Mind you, I now know where Highbury & Islington's is, which wasn't on my list (alright, geofftech's list).
Anyway, we should all be disqualified because "Warwick Avenue for Little Venice" has five words.
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Re: Random 15 Championship 2016/17: Round 1

Post by greatkingrat »

Kevin will be flattered you thought he was younger than 48!
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