Zone 1 Challenge, 15/09/06

Post by **tangy** » 17 Sep 2006, 00:46

Better write up our teams account of events:

Things got off to a bad start, the south side of the Circle was stop-start all the way to Temple including a two minute wait just outside Blackfriars. Switched platforms for only to have the stop-start scene again towards Aldgate East! The customary run to Aldagte then followed, but all that running was in vain as there was NO train in the station at all!!

A few minutes wait revealed a Circle on platform 4 heading anti-clockwise. Thus from the time we started at Cannon St to the time my team left Aldgate was a staggering THIRTY minutes!!

Desparate to claw back time, we were glad our next two changes were excellent (less than 2 minutes wait for a train), assisted by me shouting "stand clear" at top volume to the slow moving crowd ahead of us as we ran through the passages of Bank!!! Another two very good changes took us to Euston and it was time for our second overland run of the day to Euston Square.

We were mighty relieved when we reached Euston Square that the next H&C was a mere 3 minutes away, whereby we boarded that train and alighted at Paddington H&C. A run along platform 8, helped along by the brass band playing on the concourse. Afew minutes wait for a Bakerloo took us to Oxford Circus.

At Bayswater I made a slight mishap, as a train was in both platforms...trust me to run down to the wrong platform only to find "Edgware Road" on the display! Shoot, I said as we did a frantic run back up the stairs to the other platform, which thankfully was a District via Earls Court.

After that luck was on our side with a few excellent changes, even at Vauxhall NR, whereby a train was already in platform 7 ready to whisk us to Waterloo. Which is where our luck began to run out, as we got to Jubilee platform a train had just left, 2 minute wait for the next.

Nice change at London Bridge, but an utterly rubbish one at Elephant whereby there was no Bakerloo train in at all! One eventaully departed NINE minutes later! Our last change at Piccadilly Circus wasn't much better, ran to the Piccadilly line only to find a jam packed paltform and the display indicating next train in three minutes, which was more like six in reality, finally ended at Russell Square just within Julian's target for this challenge of a sub 3 hour 30.

londongirl · Post by **londongirl** » 17 Sep 2006, 03:31

Love the Cannon Street Run

coming to movie theatres soon...

The KKK Team *cough* did have a few amusing mishaps... it seems Southbound on the Victoria line was destined to be.

43019 · Post by **43019** » 17 Sep 2006, 22:27

That sums up our bash quite well there tangy! Not much worthy of note to add from this end! Well, that charge down through Bank, that was brilliant

I might have added our story before, but I only got back a few hours ago!

I must say it was different to what I expected, but it was fun! Killing my feet, I have blisters! 3h29m34s, that's disgusting really! I'm planning a Fixed Start off Paddington (H+C) soon, that'll be much better I hope!

Once again, I apologise for Cannon Street starting, that was a right b*itch to start at, I'll not start there again in a hurry! It had to be done before it closed, a problem that would be encountered on evening runs! Still, it's been tried, we all know how hard (or easy in Rick's case! Half an hour quicker than tangy and I, that's not fair!) it was to do one starting there, so we can all advise anyone who thinks of starting there on a future run not to do so, it's tough!

It was absolutely fantastic meeting everyone, I can't wait til my next opportunity to do another Z1 (won't have time on Saturday, only 4 booked hours between arrival at Greenline and departure off to Newcastle with Megabus). Thanks for making me feel so welcome too, that helped considerably! A massive training spree in the gym before doing it again I think though, something I failed to do this time and regretted it (my legs nearly collapsed inwards in on themselves trying to run to the 455 off Vauxhall to Waterloo!).

43019 will be back with a vengence as soon as is financially possible!

Oh yes, and that thing about Zone 2 visits being complusory, that was also decided that as Vauxhall and Earls Court share space in Zone 1 and 2 it was already a sort-of requirement to visit Zone 2!

Final thought is that, should it be required, I have all but 2 bashes on the challenge recorded in terms of carriages ridden in. Mainly done for my records for haulage mark-ups, but hey.

Starkey7 · Post by **Starkey7** » 18 Sep 2006, 00:46

tangy wrote:...assisted by me shouting "stand clear" at top volume to the slow moving crowd ahead of us as we ran through the passages of Bank!!!

Hmm. That's one of the few things I'd suggest not doing on a Tube Challenge. It makes people worry when that sort of thing happens. When I change trains, I try to get ahead of the crowd, or just weave in and out of people, and only go flat out if there's room for me to do so! Plenty of grovelling "sorry" and "excuse-me" words tend to help too.

londongirl · Post by **londongirl** » 18 Sep 2006, 03:06

Yeah, and again, most people see a dashing "commuter" with "excuse me!" throw in generally gets crowds separating anyway. my first attempt, i had no Way Out help so much weaving and sorrys seemed to work though probably being near the exit could have helped.

Going Underground · Post by **Going Underground** » 18 Sep 2006, 08:44

[quote="43019"]
Once again, I apologise for Cannon Street starting, that was a right b*itch to start at, I'll not start there again in a hurry! quote]

No need to apologise;

As after having seen the "Cannon Street Run" on Soup Dragon's website I decree that this should be held annually...Just like the Cannonball run across the USA

What do you reckon folks?

By the way nice to meet you and welcome aboard 43019

dr_chris · Post by **dr_chris** » 18 Sep 2006, 11:47

I think 'doctor coming through!' works quite well in case of moving large crowds...

Going Underground · Post by **Going Underground** » 18 Sep 2006, 12:03

dr_chris wrote:I think 'doctor coming through!' works quite well in case of moving large crowds...

And of course perfectly legitimate in your case, could work for Dr who as well

Starkey7 · Post by **Starkey7** » 18 Sep 2006, 15:08

"I'm Starkers and I'm coming through" will also work.

dr_chris · Post by **dr_chris** » 18 Sep 2006, 16:45

Hmm... I get a feeling that if you try that too often, eventually someone will say '**** off' and elbow you in the face!

Going Underground · Post by **Going Underground** » 18 Sep 2006, 16:56

To be honest all I ever shout out is "Tube Challenge" people do surprsingly oblige....

Oh I forgot to say we had a true tube challenge moment doing this Z1...

We dashed out of the interchange passageway from Central to Bakerloo heading South just as the train pulled in at the end of the platform so we jumped into carriage 1. Before departing the driver came out of the cab and into the carriage and asked us "how is it going and where are you heading to" we explained that today was a Z1 and we are going down to the Elephant..
He then apologised that the train would be running a little slow and got back in his cab....

We then wondered if this was the same driver that had seen us get out off the southbound Bakerloo line earlier in the challenge when we had run the opposite way into the same passageway to catch a Central line eastbound ....

I wonder if anyone else has had a similar experience with a driver?

43019 · Post by **43019** » 18 Sep 2006, 16:58

Going Underground wrote:
43019 wrote: Once again, I apologise for Cannon Street starting, that was a right b*itch to start at, I'll not start there again in a hurry! quote]

No need to apologise;

As after having seen the "Cannon Street Run" on Soup Dragon's website I decree that this should be held annually...Just like the Cannonball run across the USA

What do you reckon folks?

By the way nice to meet you and welcome aboard 43019

Felt a need to apologise as the amounts of moans I heard about the start there...

I'll have to have a gander at the Cannon Street Run when I get a few moments to! It might be a fun idea to do every year mind.

Paddytoon is my Fixed Start plan for next time, although I MIGHT try a Mouse on Saturday night, assuming I have the time to do so between Megabus arrival and departure! Planning it at the moment, it's surprisingly difficult to do a good plan for it!

I'm also looking at doing a half-all 275 some time, in the form of a Z1-3 run. That looks a bit mental too. Time for some Lazy Boy routing...

Going Underground · Post by **Going Underground** » 18 Sep 2006, 17:06

43019 wrote:I MIGHT try a Mouse on Saturday night, assuming I have the time to do so between Megabus arrival and departure! Planning it at the moment, it's surprisingly difficult to do a good plan for it!

I agree the mouse is a logistical nightmare, with your time window you could consider instead a Bottle or All lines challenge?

Starkey7 · Post by **Starkey7** » 18 Sep 2006, 17:49

Yes! Shouting "Tube Challenge" might be the way forward! I'd not thought of that. The sight of your clipboard must be what does it.

Anyway, what do you mean by the Mouse being a logistical nightmare? Hmph. If I can make a route, then anyone can. After all, isn't Zone 1 a nightmare too? (I think that it is.)

tpfkar · Post by **tpfkar** » 18 Sep 2006, 18:26

I just shout 'Excuse Me' and make sure that my feet make a lot of noise (by stamping) if they don't hear me.

As for my run, I was delighted when Starkey suggested I joined him, as I only just arrived before everyone left without planning anything, but was less thrilled when I heard that the plan was to use the Waterloo + City. We had a looong wait at Aldgate East, which at least gave me time to pick up tube maps. On the way up to Paddington, I came up with an awful route, which Starkey immediately realised could be changed fairly easily into a not-so-awful route. So we decided to go our separate ways after all.

Paddington was a decent change, but had 11 mins Queensway-Bayswater soon after, so I figured it was going to be one of those evenings. But as time went on, things went well, the runs had good connections at the end (this was quite a heavy running route) and even doing 2 runs I'd never done before, without a map, went OK. So I realised I would hit about 3 hours, got to Victoria to head down to Vauxhall, and just missed a train. I thought I'd lost 3 hours, but there was one within a minute, so just landed inside.

Given those 2 awful waits, at Aldgate East and Bayswater, and a not great connection at Elephant + Castle, it was a pretty good run. In fact, as this route was very different to anything I'd tried before, I think I've come up with a new Z1 route that might be very f ast on a good day (key thing on reflection is to *finish* at Vauxhall) Might have to try it sometime....

Thanks again to the organisers, and for letting me join at the last minute!

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Zone 1 Challenge, 15/09/06

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