Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

All you need to know and discuss about the 2013 Zone 1 Challenge.
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tractakid
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by tractakid »

Great fun on Friday, with a pleasing result! Second place is still the best result I have achieved in any of the organised challenges. Thank you Ric for teaming up, we both came up with routes, and after a short discussion about whether to split up and do our own routes, we ended up teaming up doing Ric's route. This was identical to Nigel's route, so we spent most of the time together, except when I was slow enough to get a train behind at Aldgate East. That was all rectified at Elephant and Castle though!

Being sick at Earls Court was eventful, I regret leaving the platform and train in a mess, but I felt better once it had all come up. I have a feeling that doing the Russell Square run for the first time in 'Ongar' shook up the contents inside me! As for struggling with the running- I always do! I am hoping to rectify that with 5k parkrunning, I think it has already started to make a difference, but there is still much to be done.


Good to meet some people for the first time, it's strange to think that this time last year I was meeting everyone for the first time!
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Going Underground
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by Going Underground »

tractakid wrote: I have a feeling that doing the Russell Square run for the first time in 'Ongar' shook up the contents inside me!

Ha ha very droll :D
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moley
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by moley »

What time was your incident at earls court?
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tractakid
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by tractakid »

On the Eastbound platform/wimbleware train just after 14:00, I reckon
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RobbieM
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by RobbieM »

tractakid wrote:On the Eastbound platform/wimbleware train just after 14:00, I reckon
That wasn't why the Wimbleware went down was it? It delayed us in the Earl's Court/Gloucester Rd area!
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jamesthegill
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by jamesthegill »

Did anyone do the Queensway/Bayswater run at around 14:45?
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by Nigel »

jamesthegill wrote:Did anyone do the Queensway/Bayswater run at around 14:45?
I did it (with Tractakid/Ric) at 14:32 - 14:33, when when encountered Hakan & Patrick coming the other way. Why do you ask?
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by Going Underground »

I think Robbbie may have our timings, it was around our half way point so am guessing it may have been slightly earlier but not by much....
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RobbieM
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by RobbieM »

Going Underground wrote:I think Robbbie may have our timings, it was around our half way point so am guessing it may have been slightly earlier but not by much....
I think it was just after our halfway point, so 14:45 may have been correct. Haven't got the correct time to hand at the moment, though.
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by RobbieM »

Well, what a fabulous day it was on Friday. It was good to put a few more faces to a few more names, at long last. My suspicions that the Afro I’d seen in a previous photo might have been a wig turned out to be false... (though I didn’t try tugging it, so can’t be sure...)

Interesting that I should spot into Kevin and Nozza on my Met train as we approached Liverpool St! Gave me a chance to renew the acquaintance by saying “I guess I’m coming to see you guys off on your challenge!” Little did I know I’d be sticking with them all the way around.

How on earth I managed to keep up with the other two members of “Don’t Look Back in Ongar” I’ll never know. I suppose I assume nearly all other Tube Challengers are super-fast sprinters, and that I, with my dodgy ankle, would be left near the starting blocks. But when it turns out that the ‘sprints’ are more like jogs, and that my limp can be carefully transformed into a ‘fast walk’, then it was much easier. (Plus the fact that we had to wait around three minutes for most of our connections...) By the time I’d decided that I was going to complete this, even if I missed a connection, I decided that I’d call my new solo team “I looked back in Ongar”. But it wasn’t necessary, fortunately.

A wonderful quiz too, tangy. Especially because we won! Very useful for me to have grown up in Preston, and to have two Preston-related questions in the quiz.

My ankle has been feeling the effect of Friday, but nowhere near as much as I thought it might. I successfully got through a busy weekend, and managed my organ-playing in a concert on Saturday evening, with my feet hitting the right pedals. So maybe I’ll be able to use them to run again one day. Hopefully I’ll be able to take part in another challenge sometime soon. However, I guess I have one or two limitations on being a serious Tube Challenger – I can’t play darts for a start!

Thanks to tangy once again for organising, and to everyone who came along. A superb day!
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by tpfkar »

I came along (after a month of nagging from tractakid) more to see friends than for the competition; it was a pleasure to catch up and meet some of the newer challengers, although a shame that the scale of the event is somewhat smaller than it was previously.

As I've hardly been on the underground, I'm well out of touch with what was going on, particularly around connections such as Paddington which had been rejigged since I was last in town. So when the starting station came out as Regent's Park, it was an obvious choice to do this first in a large group where I could follow others as needed. Also a pleasure to join up with tractakid for the day. We each came up with a route; I went for a 'safe' route similar to what I'd used before, so I knew several of the connections. Not much in it, but I think mine was a few minutes faster than tractakid's and we agreed to go with mine.

The first half was full of mediocre connections, and we were down to 4 for the first external run, Goodge St to Russell Square. tractakid clearly wasn't looking forward to it, and although we kept going at a run throughout, we were well behind the others so it was a mighty relief to see them waiting on the platform at Russell Square. We assumed we would be together for the duration, but Peter jumped out at Piccadilly Circus. I realised what he was doing and after some sketching thought that his route was 4 mins slower than ours - pretty much what happened. I actually had the Knightsbridge->Sloane Square run on the route, but tractakid was clearly unwell so this had to be dropped, and at Earl's Court it became clear just how much impact that run had had. As we didn't take the second run, we were travelling with Nigel who had an identical route to ours.

So although there wasn't much choice left, I focussed on just getting round, keeping the connections as quick and simple as possible. We were obstructed by some Swedish tourists getting into Queensway, but otherwise a good change with a train in platform. Before long we were running into Aldgate East, the last external transfer, and as I got to the station, there was a train just pulling in. Although I waved Nigel onto it, tractakid wasn't close to making it so I let it go - actually felt quite good to be less competitive and enjoy the day. However we then had several sexy connections, and wondered if we might catch Nigel back up again. At Elephant & Castle as I was worrying about the right carriage to aim for, tractakid spotted Nigel at the end of the platform. For us, seeing him again was like winning the lottery, for him it looked like he'd discovered the bad smell following him round (thinking back to Earl's Court, maybe not entirely inaccurate?)

From there we acted more as a team helping each other out, the only chance for us to separate was at Westminster where there was a tight connection with train in platform, but tractakid charged up the final escalator at speed and we all bundled on, foot on platform in Vauxhall in 2:52:15

We were second to the pub behind Peter but later found out that tangy had beaten us by 80 seconds or so. Possible that the Sloane Square run would have made the difference, although both the first (Paddington) and last connections cost us at least that much time - so very close and it may have won with the same route on another run. mrs tpfkar is very pleased with the bottle of wine - a very generous prize and thanks to tangy for everything he did to make the event a success.

A couple of folks tried to persuade me to come R15 racing. Never say never but I have many more commitments now so not so easy to come down - but we'll see.
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tractakid
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by tractakid »

Sorry about the nagging! I'm just enthusiastic and want attendance to be as good as possible.

Just a thought about the Sloane Square run... if you'd have done it, and I'd not, would you have made the same Wimbleware train at Earl's Court? If not, it would have put you 10 minutes down, which I doubt would have been made up with the additional, efficient 'There's no train coming, lets walk' ;) double back later on.
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tangy
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by tangy »

The key to a winning route from Regent's Park? Head south! Only one other team did this.

I also had good interchanges most of the way round most within 1 or 2 minutes (bar my penulimate train from Euston Square which was described as 5 minutes), even got a Wimbleware first from Bayswater. I was fortanate at Farringdon as I ran onto the platform just a train was pulling in, I noted the next one was 7 minutes behind (thanks to the traffic lights just outside Farringdon stopping the main road on red so I could run straight across the main road without stopping)!

I was also one of two teams who used the NR Vauxhall- Waterloo link which worked a treat. I had a choice, platform 2 or platform 8, just missed the one on platform 2 so went to platform 8, good choice, as the train I was on got a free run into Waterloo whereas the other train was held on red outside the station.

I came up the Charing X branch of the Northern line then doubled back to Warren Street to run to Euston Square, rather than bailing at Euston. Getting out of Euston (onto the public highway) can take a best part of 2 minutes!

Well, finally after 7 or 8 years of trying I finally get the trophy for myself. A special thanks for all of you for respecting the minute's silence held in memory of Roger and of course for all of you that attended and took part. There would be no challenge without the challengers!

Here's to next year.

Tangy
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RobbieM
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by RobbieM »

Well, this super day was over eight months ago now, and hot news just off the press.

As I alluded to in my earlier post, there was a wonderful General Knowledge quiz in the evening. And as part of the winning team, I was priveleged to come away with a 360g bar of Dairy Milk chocolate.

I can now confirm that the last chunk of this bar of chocolate was consumed yesterday evening. (It also seemed a fitting way to mark the 5th anniversary of my one-and-only Full-Network Attempt/Completion). It takes me a long time to get through chocolate! :)

Will I make it to this year's Z1, I wonder?
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Garion
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Re: Zone 1 day 2013- Friday 31st May 2013

Post by Garion »

That bar would have lasted me around 1 or 2 days :P
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