To all those saying 'I would have...' Go and do the challenge then
These times are definitely beatable. I had a couple of disasters along the way.
I splashed out on an anytime ticket, leaving MK at 07:14. I would have made the 06:59 had it been there, but it was delayed. I'm glad I did this- got some door positions and became familiar with some of the interchanges.
Arriving at Ruislip Manor I went to the loo- on return to the platform I was greeted with the smiley faces of Kev and Nozza. Due to the Central Line chaos- I had a dilemma. Did I leave on my planned train, or do I play it safe and leave on an earlier train to make an important connection later? I decided to play it safe. It's a pain not having next train indicators to refer to. This happened to be the same train Kev and Nozza took. I say 'happen', I suspect they were actually stalking me. Getting off at Ruislip, (Kev and Nozza copying me once again), I slogged it as quickly as I could to West Ruislip. I was greeted with a train entering the platform with a 7 minute wait. This did make me wonder if I could have gotten the train after at Ruislip Manor, but at least I was on a train which made my connection. Kev and Nozza turned up a fer minutes later having waited for a U1.
This connection was at Greenford. Kev and Nozza got off the train here, veering towards the First Great Western train. I was thinking 'no way, they thought of this too?!', but it turns out they were trying to tease me, they were in fact just changing their door position. I think they were surprised that I did get on the train. My plan to get the train to West Ealing, catching a bus to Northfields worked perfectly. The only annoyance is that the connection at Greenford takes a few minutes, as a bus turned up at the perfect time at West Ealing.
It turns out the train I boarded at Northfields was the one Kev and Nozza had also boarded. I was gutted not to be ahead of them, but then again, had I followed the same route as them, I would almost certainly be behind them. Then again- Kew Gardens, as expected, is a real pain, slow connections would probably have allowed any differences to be cancelled.
My stalkers followed me all the way to Manor House, down to Finsbury Park and onto a Victoria train. I pushed past Kev to get my door position, and that was the last I saw of them. I had finally shaken them off.
Turns out that we were on the same Charing Cross branch train, they changed at Euston, whereas I changed at Warren Street. I JUST missed a train at Warren Street, which it appears Kev and Nozza just missed at Euston.
The next few stages were my demise. I switched to the Bakerloo at Waterloo, which actually got me ahead of Kev and Nozza. I took a risk, I ran up to the NR station to get a train to Blackfriars. Disaster struck- the train departing as I arrived at the platform. I took a minute or 2 to recalculate- the next train was about 15 minutes away, so I headed back down to Elephant and Castle to get a Bakerloo to Embankment. A great side effect of this was the ability to buy a drink from the platform here- I was very thirsty. The next district train terminated was for Tower Hill- which was fine, except this messed up my door position. I wasn't too far off.
Twice I have used Tower Gateway. Twice it has failed me, with a train pulling out as I go up the escalator. Kev and Noz were on this train.
After this, everything went as smoothly as it could. Another perfect bus connection, 2/2 from Deptford Bridge to New Cross Gate. I arrived there with a long wait till the next Palace train, so I got the next train to Sydenham and waited there instead.
2 of the finest margins cost me... luck wasn't on my side. Oh well. I enjoyed it.
Thanks everyone for coming, shame we didn't get to chat for longer in the pub.
Finsbury Park