Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

All you need to know and discuss about the 2016 Zone 1 Challenge.
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crypto
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by crypto »

First report from St. James's Lark:

My route went...

Edgware Rd C, Paddington H&C, run to Paddington D, Edgware Rd C, run to Edgware Rd B, Regent's Park, run to Great Portland Street, Euston Square, run to Euston, Tottenham Court Rd, Queensway, run to Bayswater, Gloucester Rd, Earl's Court (Piccadilly), Kings Cross St Pancras, Moorgate, Farringdon, run to Chancery Lane, Liverpool Street, Aldgate, run to Aldgate East, Embankment, Elephant and Castle, London Bridge, Westminster, Sloane Square, Victoria, Vauxhall

Could have done better in a few places. I managed to get lost at KXSP and to a lesser extent, Moorgate, to put me two trains down. Once I met up with Kev and Andrew, we had some howlers of bad connections on the Bakerloo Line. But with the bad comes good: I made the right choice to go round to Gloucester Rd and double back on the Piccadilly, with an instant change at Earl's Court. The route worked well (given it was similar to a previous record, should'nt surprise), even with problems. Eventually netted me a joint third.
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RJSRdg »

For the benefit of TubeGeek, and for those at the pub who were wondering how I managed to avoid re-visiting Edgware Road (C) and also avoid a Sloane Square double-back, here's my route:

Edgware Road (C)
Paddington (HCL) > run to
Paddington (Praed Street). Unfortunately I dropped back from almost everyone during this run as when i was putting my Travelcard back in my wallet after the HCL barriers, all my other cards fell out and by the time I'd picked them up everyone else had vanished apart from Robbie who I overtook at the top of the escalators but who stlll managed to get to the Praed Street barriers before me! I saw him get on a train back to Edgware Road (C) whilst I was waiting for a southbound train (quite a long wait). That was the last I saw of anyone before the pub!
High Street Ken Intending to double back here, the northbound train was in the other platform but I couldn't make it across in time, and the next wasn't for six minutes so I thought it might be worth trying to make it to Queensway on foot. Unfortunately it almost certainly wasn't so I think I lost a couple of trains there. Had I been fully fit and taken the correct route, I would probably have still wound up catching the same train I would have done had I hung on six minutes and gone back to NHG.
Bank
King's Cross (via Moorgate, Old Street and Angel Down the Piccadilly line to
Earl's Court
St James's Park
Victoria
Vauxhall
Waterloo
Elephant & Castle
London Bridge
Westminster
Aldgate East
Aldgate - good to see that the roadworks between these two stations have now gone, making running between them easier. However Aldgate was my second disaster - noting from the screens that a Met line train was about to depart from platform 2, I counted the platforms from the wrong side and went to Platform 3, which also had a Met Line train in it with doors open. A Circle line train then arrived in Platform 4 and I was unsure which was going next but as the Met train's doors started to close I jumped on that one. A great deal of opening and closing of doors on both trains then ensued, and of course the Circle went first (I should have worked that one out, really!). Several more minutes of door opening and closing of the Met train followed before it finally set off, with me a further two trains down on where I should have been. As I was on a Met train, I changed at
Baker Street for the Bakerloo to
Edgware Road (Bakerloo) before doubling back to
Charing Cross and up the Northern to
Euston
for a time of 3:27:26. Slightly disappointing as I'd really been aiming for something nearer the three hour mark (based on the fact that my Bottle Challenge time was a little under 2 hours and the Z1 is the bottle with a few extra stations added in). I know Robbie got a better time than me (and he wasn't expecting to get a good time) and a number of others were in the pub when I got there, despite my route ending in a convenient location for getting up there, so definitely room for improvement. That said, apart from HSK and Aldgate nearly every change was spot-on with a train either in the platform or just a minute or so out.

Unfortunately I had to be back in Reading for 8pm so I didn't hang around to hear how everybody else got on.
Last edited by RJSRdg on 04 Jun 2016, 20:31, edited 1 time in total.
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RJSRdg
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RJSRdg »

crypto wrote:First report from St. James's Lark:

My route went...

Edgware Rd C, Paddington H&C, run to Paddington D, Edgware Rd C, run to Edgware Rd B, Regent's Park, run to Great Portland Street, Euston Square, run to Euston, Tottenham Court Rd, Queensway, run to Bayswater, Gloucester Rd, Earl's Court (Piccadilly), Kings Cross St Pancras, Moorgate, Farringdon, run to Chancery Lane, Liverpool Street, Aldgate, run to Aldgate East, Embankment, Elephant and Castle, London Bridge, Westminster, Sloane Square, Victoria, Vauxhall

Could have done better in a few places. I managed to get lost at KXSP and to a lesser extent, Moorgate, to put me two trains down. Once I met up with Kev and Andrew, we had some howlers of bad connections on the Bakerloo Line. But with the bad comes good: I made the right choice to go round to Gloucester Rd and double back on the Piccadilly, with an instant change at Earl's Court. The route worked well (given it was similar to a previous record, should'nt surprise), even with problems. Eventually netted me a joint third.
What was your time?
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crypto
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by crypto »

Finished with Kev and Andrew on a 3:02:23. I'm sure BOZO will turn up soon with the full results
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by The Orange One »

Here follow the adventures of "With Great Portland Street Comes Great Responsibility". The bits in bold are bits I did with other challengers. My route was:

Edgware Road (CDH) :arrow: Paddington (CH) :arrow: Paddington (CD) :arrow: Edgware Road (CDH) :arrow: Edgware Road (B) :arrow: Regent's Park :arrow: Great Portland Street :arrow: Moorgate :arrow: Euston :arrow: Tottenham Court Road :arrow: Queensway :arrow: Bayswater :arrow: Gloucester Road :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Russell Square :arrow: Holborn :arrow: Liverpool Street :arrow: Aldgate :arrow: Aldgate East :arrow: Embankment :arrow: Charing Cross :arrow: Elephant and Castle :arrow: London Bridge :arrow: Westminster :arrow: Sloane Square :arrow: Victoria :arrow: Vauxhall

Points of note:

1) The start was awful (three out of station runs in quick succession). Because I was on Oyster and going from Edgware Road (CDH) to Edgware Road (CDH) (the Paddingtons are an OSI) would probably **** up the system I had to break the OSI at Paddington - which meant touching in, out then in again. This didn't cost me a train but I cut it rather closer than I would have liked!!
2) The lift wasn't coming at Regent's Park so I took the stairs (all 96 of them). This left me to take the Regent's Park - GPS run slower than usual, but as everyone else had also taken the stairs they were also slow. When I got to the overbridge at Great Portland Street I noticed a train below, so put on a small burst of speed and slipped through the closing doors, losing Andrew C, James (and Kevin I guess).
3) I met Nick at Euston and we were together up until Queensway.
4) I loved not having to do the Euston run or the Farringdon run - I might continue to adopt this practice in future!!
5) I met Kevin at Bayswater and he took the Circle with me up until Notting Hill Gate. He decided to drop back to the District following 4 minutes behind (but the board at HSK said 5 minutes so I'm going with that). When I got to Gloucester Road, though, the lift was right there waiting to take me down, a train arrived within seconds of me getting to the Piccadilly platforms, and I spent about 6 seconds at Earl's Court doubling back. It was odd not visiting the Earl's Court District platforms though!! This was the last time I saw a challenger.
6) At Hyde Park Corner (station number 32, so halfway through), I noticed I had a time of 1 hour 17 minutes. As double that is 2 hours 34 minutes, within the record, I decided to put a bit more effort in. Things were fine until Liverpool Street.
7) At Liverpool Street, I had an extremely long wait for a train east (Met to Aldgate). At Aldgate East, I had an extremely long wait for a District. And at every station down to Embankment, I had an extremely long wait to leave.
8 ) Spent about 10 seconds at Charing Cross!!
9) I missed a Northern Line by seconds at Elephant and Castle. I missed a Jubilee Line simply by virtue of the platform edge doors - if they didn't have PEDs at London Bridge, I'd have been able to grab hold of the closing doors and squeeze myself on board! Fortunately, train came fast at Westminster.
10) I got to Sloane Square to see a 4 minute wait for a District Line. As I waited, the Clive Burgess record time of 2:36:30 slipped by, then the Glen record time of 2:39:00, then my old record time of 2:40:34, then the Glen/Antony/Kevin record of 2:40:44 - then finally the train came. Luckily it was full speed down to Vauxhall.

I'm not telling you my time, that's Tangy's job to reveal.
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RJSRdg
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RJSRdg »

Yes, I thought there had to be a better way of knocking out Charing Cross than coming all the way down the Bakerloo and back up the Northern, but I couldn't see it at the time and that route worked well enough when I did the Bottle, so I left it as is.
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by tractakid »

crypto wrote:Finished with Kev and Andrew on a 3:02:23. I'm sure BOZO will turn up soon with the full results

we weren't that fast! :)
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RobbieM »

A quick report from "Yippee! I didn't have to stop to use the Waterloo!":

Edgware Rd (c) :arrow: Paddington (hc) :arrow: (walk) Paddington (cb) :arrow: Edgware Rd (c) :arrow: (walk) Edgware Rd (b) :arrow: Regent's Park :arrow: (walk) Great Portland St :arrow: Aldgate East :arrow: (walk) Aldgate :arrow: Sloane Square :arrow: Victoria :arrow: Vauxhall :arrow: (train) Waterloo :arrow: London Bridge :arrow: Elephant & Castle :arrow: Waterloo :arrow: Euston :arrow: Bank :arrow: Queensway :arrow: (walk) Bayswater :arrow: Earl's Court :arrow: Russell Square.

Much of the route-planning happened 15-20 minutes into the challenge. By the time I'd travelled through Barbican, I had my remaining route provisionally mapped out - initially for a planned Angel finish. However, did make some changes as I went along. I ended up doing the Waterloo-LondonBridge-E&C triangle in reverse to my initial plan - due to getting into Waterloo at the Jubilee end. And that worked out for a better connection when I later returned to Waterloo. Then I ended up reversing my planned route from Euston for an Angel finish, instead opting for a Russell Square finish. This too, turned out to be a better option.

My plan for the day was just to do the challenge, with minimum changes/walks. I wasn't looking to break any records, and fast running wasn't an option for me. I had some good connections - one of these may have left the shape of my shoe on the door of a Bakerloo train. One or two bad connections, especially Aldgate, where I needed to wait 9 minutes for a Circle departure.

However, considering I wasn't actually planning to get the best time, I think that it turned out to be a Z1 personal best made me pretty happy. 3:07:06 was the final time.

And a great evening at the pub - and a pleasure to win the quiz too! Maybe I'll get to another event before next year's Z1?
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by Tube Geek »

Ooooh, forgot about the quiz! What was it on/like?
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RobbieM »

It was a general knowledge quiz, with 50 questions. Though I was a little surprised that there were no questions on 17th century Italian philosophers or buses :D . That didn't matter too much though - my anorak knowledge of STD codes came in quite handy.
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RJSRdg »

There was a question on buses.
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by Going Underground »

Just got in from a great 2 days of tube challenge and parkrun and my write ups to follow... :D
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by RobbieM »

RJSRdg wrote:There was a question on buses.
Oh yes, so there was. And it was one of the few we got wrong!!
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Re: Zone 1 Challenge Cup- Friday 3rd June 2016

Post by tractakid »

Edgware Road Circle -> Paddington H&C -> (run) Paddington District -> Edgware Road Circle -> (run) Edgware Road Bakerloo -> Regent's Park -> (run) Great Portland Street -> Moorgate -> Euston -> Tottenham Court Road -> Queensway -> (run) Bayswater -> Earls Court -> Russell Square -> Holborn -> Liverpool Street -> Aldgate -> (run) Aldgate East -> Embankment -> Charing Cross -> Elephant & Castle -> London Bridge -> Westminster -> Sloane Square -> Victoria -> Vauxhall

Decided to reroute at Goodge Street last minute- was going to run to Russell Square. Then decided/realised the Russell Square doubleback option would probably better. Got to TCR mentally unprepared and ended up missing the first two trains out towards Queensway... firstly I went a different direction at TCR to Kevin as I followed the signs and got a bit confused along the way. Got to the top of the staircase with a train at both platforms and missed the one I wanted... before I could think about which one I wanted. The other train departed a few seconds later.

The problem was I didn't realise that I had got horribly confused and was lucky to not have travelled to Holborn... I could have made the first Queensway train the whole time. Even worse, I only realised my mistake when the SECOND Queensway train was about to depart and I missed that too... I was incredibly lucky to be on the same District line train to Earls Court as Kevin. I had, however, missed the Circle line train Hugo caught which he used to Gloucester Road to achieve victory.

Happy with third place & my new tube lunchbox as a prize!
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