tubechallenge.com

Just a rather brief message to state that yesterday myself, Tangy and Andi did a secret attempt - getting the first bite at the cherry under the new timetables. Needless to say there are some good things and some bad things about the timetables, but, despite having no support (apart from our independent stopwatch operator) we managed to complete the network in a new provision GWR time of 16 Hours, 44 Minutes and 16 Seconds.

I'll post more about it later on, and I'm sure that Tangy and Andi will post their reports etc of the day here in due course!

[Edited to note that this perhaps should have been posted in the Andi Attempts Forum as he was part of the team - feel free to move this thread Neil]

Steeevooo wrote:Just a rather brief message to state that yesterday myself, Tangy and Andi did a secret attempt - getting the first bite at the cherry under the new timetables. Needless to say there are some good things and some bad things about the timetables, but, despite having no support (apart from our independent stopwatch operator) we managed to complete the network in a new provision GWR time of 16 Hours, 44 Minutes and 16 Seconds.

I'll post more about it later on, and I'm sure that Tangy and Andi will post their reports etc of the day here in due course!

[Edited to note that this perhaps should have been posted in the Andi Attempts Forum as he was part of the team - feel free to move this thread Neil]

Assumming your record is sound, there's your sub-17-hour completion time right there, as predicted.

To quote Steve Wilson thread yes this attempt was done yesterday secretly And yes we finished in a Provisional time of 16h 44m 16s.

Our route we have been refining for quite some time now and we took advantage of the Timetable changes (we were surprised to see no other people trying that day) even though we got no luck wiv buses at all and did everything the hard way by running.

Hence thus High Barnet-Cockfosters running all the way and even having to wait at least 5 mins for a bus from Edgware to Canons Park.

Why didn't you run edgware to canons park if you did Barnet to Cock?

Sam wrote:Why didn't you run edgware to canons park if you did Barnet to Cock?

we ran some of it down to the bus stop we knew the 340 was coming behind us but still had to wait 4 mins at least it been evens on whether we have beaten the bus or not by running it have been close but we saved energy i suppose for some corridor runs.

Oh right. Fair enough.

Congratulations.

Yes - well done and congratulations on achieving such a good time!

Roger.

can you tell me your start/finish stations? and i'll update my webpage.

This is just getting ridiculous. I mean, well done and everything, but the record seems to fall every few weeks nowadays... and every time, I think "surely it can't go any lower"? It's nearly a whole two hours less than the famous Geoff & Neil time. That, to me, is astonishing, even taking into account the configuration changes.

I think this record is gonna be damn hard to even get near it.
No-one else has the fitness levels that they have.... hmmm... it could well kill the record now.

ah! here's the thread. still no start/finish stations though. i'm assuming an Amersham/Chesham start and a Heathrow finish?

with regards to two hours of the time: well. me & Neil got what... 18:35, but that included wasting 25 minutes around the Mill Hill East/Finchley central area. which is why i always maintained on a better day, we could have done 18:10. and on a near-perfect day, 18 hours. So take 18 hours... subtract 45/60 minutes for no more ELL, and that brings it down to 17:15, or 17:00 straight for me.

so yeah.. a whole 20 minutes faster than what i think i could do it in. now THAT'S what i call a challenge ...

Congratulations to the new record holders. Please spare a thought for some poor person at Guiness who's going to be working overtime over Christmas ratifying records.

geofftech wrote:ah! here's the thread. still no start/finish stations though. i'm assuming an Amersham/Chesham start and a Heathrow finish?

with regards to two hours of the time: well. me & Neil got what... 18:35, but that included wasting 25 minutes around the Mill Hill East/Finchley central area. which is why i always maintained on a better day, we could have done 18:10. and on a near-perfect day, 18 hours. So take 18 hours... subtract 45/60 minutes for no more ELL, and that brings it down to 17:15, or 17:00 straight for me.

so yeah.. a whole 20 minutes faster than what i think i could do it in. now THAT'S what i call a challenge ...

Well done to Andi, Tangu & Steve,

Geoff, don't forget to add on for the Terminal 5 finish and the seven minute wait at Terminal 4 that you never had to do prior to T5 opening. Also the addition of Wood Lane adds a minute or so. No matter how much spin you try and put on it 16:44 is considerably better than 18:35.

My immediate thought was that the new time is almost impossible to beat, but on reflection with our recent attempt we wasted heaps of time, 10 minutes plus at Ken Oly, Wimbledon, Fenchurch Street and T123, also we took 5 minutes longer than average on Uxbridge turnaround, Preston Rd double back and also Amy Winehouse to Cockfosters, so thats another 15 minutes. In total I estimate we could around 60 minutes quicker, so potentially around 16:18 could be possible.

spin? what spin? "now that's what i call a challenge!" (quote: me) is clearly indicative that i think that this is an incredible time - it is!

isn't blackfriars closed at the moment tho? that negates the Wood Lane stop. the whole new timetable probably helped.

of course .. someone could theoretically do the exact same route, be on the same last train ... and just get in 5 seconds faster.

let's face it, Andi will probably be out there at sometime doing just that. trying to shave a few seconds off of his own time!