My Winter Olympic FNC debut...

[Rhys1995]

For the first time, I was able to participate in the Winter Olympics and at that, the Full Network Challenge event. I had a few ideas regarding routes and I am still sitting on a fair few that I've yet to test, however I settled on one after some deliberation.

I started at Kensington Olympia, a nice early morning alarm in a nice Premier Inn near Hammersmith Apollo, breakfast at McDonald's just after 0500 and then walked up to Olympia to catch the 0549 departure. An initial panic as we left almost 2 minutes late so I was wondering whether I would get my first connection at Earl's Court. Thankfully I did, jogged over to get the Wimbledon train and then headed south. I arrived into Wimbledon with the plan to get the 93 to Morden and sod's law, even at 0613 the bus was delayed. I got the 251 instead to South Wimbledon and then tubed to Morden. The doors didn't open on both sides so I missed the 0628 by mere seconds, not good. The next departure at 0631 had to suffice and now it was dicey whether I'd get my connection to Battersea from Kennington. By some unbeknownst miracle I made said connection, had another excellent 1 minute connection at Battersea to return north. Alighted at Finchley Central then up to MHE and back, somehow I ended up 2 minutes early as there was, rather conveniently a High Barnet service on the other platform.

I then began to wonder if I could get an earlier bus from High Barnet to Cockfosters, I then watched as the 384 departed 3 minutes early as I arrived into High Barnet! If only the 307 was on time, as it ended up 5 minutes late so I missed the 0830 from Cockfosters. Got on the next train 5 minutes late, then it was a race to South Kensington as I realised I could make up a bit of time by getting off at South Kensington then getting the Circle Line around to Edgware Road. A stunning connection followed and I was on the way to Edgware Road. As I was on a Circle Line terminator I had to simply cross platforms to get my train to Hammersmith and made up the 5 minutes that I had lost, ending up back on time. I trundled down to Hammersmith back on time then it was onto Richmond. I left Hammersmith on time and all was well until I got near Gunnersbury and ended up losing 5 minutes, missing the Mildmay Line and returning back to being 5 down again. A pattern began to emerge as I got the tube across to Turnham Green, across platforms and was back on time... Again! Next stop, Ealing Broadway. The train left 2 minutes late for West Acton so I knew I had to get my skates on to get the 1059 from North Ealing...

I arrived with 90 seconds to spare at North Ealing but where was my train? The next Uxbridge service was showing as arriving in 12 minutes? Surely I hadn't missed it? A few minutes pass, I've noticed there's a train on the other platform that's been stationary for all the time that I've been there, no information at all and then the later Uxbridge service disappears and we are left with 'Piccadilly Line, Westbound departures' on the screen. I found out then that the service had been suspended from Acton Town to Rayners Lane and I was stuck. I hatched a plan to run back to West Acton, Central Line to North Acton, onto West Ruislip then head to Uxbridge. If the service was back up and running I'd then return to Rayners Lane and then down to North Ealing again, if the service was still suspended I would head up to tackle the top of the Met. Executed this plan, by the time I got to Uxbridge there were still no trains heading down the Piccadilly, so I gambled and went to tackle the Metropolitan Line. I had a gorgeous 90 second connection at HOTH for a Chesham service, then the bus to Amersham. That's where my luck ran out, an 18 minute wait at Amersham for the next Moor Park bound service. I got on the 1341 Chiltern to Rickmansworth in case there was a miraculous Metropolitan Line coming into service but no luck there, so I waited for the train that I would have been on anyway. Moor Park and Watford followed, by this time the Piccadilly Line was running albeit with severe delays so it was to North Harrow and then the bus to Rayners Lane. I had seen there was a 1 minute connection at North Harrow, managed to get over the road in time for the bus. By this point I had forgotten what bus number I was after and I didn't really care in truth. Turns out I was on the correct bus and got into Rayners Lane with the view I would head down the Picc again...

There as a 1450 scheduled for Arnos Grove, the train left the middle siding 10 minutes late. By this point I was assessing my options as I was convinced I wouldn't be able to complete the event. I spent the journey up to North Ealing doing some calculations and I had worked out I was at least one hour down and would clearly miss the last HT4 service. I ran to the Central Line regardless back to West Acton and made the decision that I would stop. After 9 hours and 59 minutes I aborted at St Paul's and 140 stations in.

Things were going really well until the service suspension and I was gutted, made the right decision to stop when I did though. There were a few positives to take from the day though, the route I had planned was working well and I think in different circumstances it would beat my personal best time by a fair way. Congratulations to all that completed the FNC, I'll be back.