Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

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Steeevooo
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Steeevooo »

I too endured my fair share of mishaps on this challenge - namely two 6 minute waits for trains at Regent's Park and Hangar Lane, and also being held at Mornington Crescent for 7 minutes in order to regulate the service... :!: The Northern Line also lived up to its billing as the Misery Line, but compared to the travails of others on this attritional day, I will not dwell and bleat about them!

Similar to Kev above, I also ensured that I ticked off the Winter WonderHell-land early on in an attempt to eliminate the later carnage that ensues, which ultimately appears to have been a winning tactic given the later chaos that others have reported. I didn't, however, comprehend the fact that Tottenham are still playing at Wembley, so ticking off Wembley Park at approximately 2:45PM may not have been the most sensible of options. There was nothing revolutionary in the route that undertook, although I did catch a bus that I've never previously taken. Had reasonable luck with buses for once actually, as in addition to catching the above, I also caught a bus Canons Park :arrow: Edgware immediately, had a 1 minute wait for a Westbourne Park :arrow: Kilburn Park and also just missed a bus at Park Royal, which was fine since I overtook it on my run down to Hangar Lane (although ultimately worthless due to the aforementioned delay).

Saw Kev and A2 heading through the barriers at the start, and saw Peter on the opposite platform at Stonebridge Park, but otherwise was alone all day until Newbury Park where I met up with Clive and we slowly completed the remaining Parks together before slowly heading to the pub for a variable standard of darts, including some confident proclamations of "never being able to hit this double/hating this double" before promptly hitting it first time....from at least three different players (you know who you are!!).

Not one of the best challenges this year with the inclement weather and the fragility of the line, but another one done and another title held!
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Das »

Hi,my details to come,just got back of another night shift,will be done by end of the day.but only 11 stations.
Das
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Das »

Right lets do this now.
After a new P.B.at Finsbury Park parkrun I decided to celebrate with a brekkie at the Coronet(Holloway Road)with Andy,in hindsight I should have started at 10.00,1st mistake.
Finsbury Park 11.07.04 - 11.09
Blackhorse Road 11.17 11.20 2nd mistake in my eagerness I got on the train in the wrong direction losing approx. 30 mins.
South Tottenham 11.24 - 11.48
Leytonstone High Road 12.56
Leytonstone 12.14
Newbury Park 12.22 bus 296(again the wrong one ) 12.30
Romford 13.04 bus 252 13.04
Elm Park 13.18 13.19
Upton Park 13.37 13.38
Aldgate East 13.56 13.58
St James's Park 14.10 14.14
Earl's Court 14.20 14.30
Wimbledon Park 14.55 14.58
Earl's Court
Ravenscourt Park 15.25 15.33
Chiswick Park 14.40 14.56
Ealing Common 16.00 16.27
Park Royal 16.31 Run
Hanger Lane
Holland Park 16.54 16.58
Marble Arch several exits closed,everyone gong for the same exit Run down Park Lane
Hyde Park Corner Shut
Knightsbridge Long wait to enter station
Green Park Long wait to exit station so on to the Victoria Line and back to my car at High Barnet,
Lat year I abandoned at a soaked FInsbury Park very ill(was in bed for 2 days),so this year I am truly gutted,but have a new Parkrun PB to cheer me up a lil.
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by michael_churchill »

With the yule-f**k that is in Hyde Park now seemingly being a permanent annual feature, surely every year this is going to be a misery. Why not move it to the summer, during the R15 off-season? I never understood what the connection between Christmas and Park is anyway!

Just think... Nicer weather (you'd hope), no need to worry about football crowds, and I bet none of you saw much daylight.
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Going Underground
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Going Underground »

michael_churchill wrote: 18 Dec 2018, 09:50 With the yule-f**k that is in Hyde Park now seemingly being a permanent annual feature, surely every year this is going to be a misery. Why not move it to the summer, during the R15 off-season? I never understood what the connection between Christmas and Park is anyway!

Just think... Nicer weather (you'd hope), no need to worry about football crowds, and I bet none of you saw much daylight.
No way, this is a "lot of running challenge" it wont be happening in the summer it's way too hot!! Will look at maybe a bit earlier in the year (end of Nov / 1st week of Dec) or maybe early January
Will have to check when winter wonderland starts and finishes next year....
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greatkingrat
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by greatkingrat »

For me I think the problem is that as well as the length, the challenge is getting repetitive. Even with a different start station you end up doing similar things every year. Will probably give this one a miss in future.
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by The Orange One »

Proposal: Non-Tube TfL Park challenge on the same day as the Park Challenge. Same external photograph rule.

17 stations/stops outside Zone 1, should therefore take a similar amount of time to the 24 of the Park Challenge but without the annoyance that is Winter Wonderland. Covers:

London Overground
Bush Hill Park
Brondesbury Park
Carpenders Park
Emerson Park
Highams Park
Honor Oak Park
Queen's Park
Stonebridge Park
Wanstead Park
Woodgrange Park

Docklands Light Railway
Beckton Park
Langdon Park

TfL Rail
Gidea Park
Manor Park

Tramlink
Lloyd Park
Merton Park
Wandle Park

Not quite sure how external photograph will work with Tramlink though... any ideas?

Most importantly, with the long waits on the Overground it could throw some pretty wacky runs/buses into the mix! And after all, that's the most exciting bit about the Park Challenge, all the stuff you'd never ever normally do...
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Das
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Das »

Another proposal,although not a Xmas park challenge replacement,I'm thinking of a random 33,one station from all of the 33 boroughs,for example.
Temple
Charing Cross
Emerson Park
Custom House
Goodmayes
Barking
Chingford
Stoke Newington
Winchmore Hill
Island Gardens
Ponders End
East Finchley
Camden Town
Arsenal
West Harrow
Neasden
Uxbridge
Northolt
West Kensington
Kensington Olympia
Osterley
Norbury
Tolworth
Knockholt
Welling
Surrey Quays
North Sheen
Sutton
Clapham High Street
Battersea Power Station
Deptford Bridge
Blackheath

Wimbledon Chase
Try cramming that in a day.
tufnellpark
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by tufnellpark »

Going Underground wrote: 16 Dec 2018, 19:30 There will be no rules change sorry, the external photo is what makes this challenge so unique and cant really be altered after so many years...
I appreciate that this challenge has been running for several years and the format is set but....
it takes about 8 hours and I reckon 90 mins of that is spent getting off trains, running up escalators, waiting for lifts and then heading back down to catch the same line in the same direction, but one or two trains later. For me the unique thing about the Parks Challenge, is that much of the route is outside Zones 1 and 2, so you visit/change at different stations/areas. I estimate that a Parks Challenge with roundel (instead of external) photos would take 6.5 hours but would retain its uniqueness.

Here are the Parks stations with the usual arrival/departure mode at each station:

Belsize Park, up and down in the lift, which can take 5 mins
Canons Park, arrive by bus and leave by train or vice versa
Chiswick Park, arrive by train and run to Turnham Green
Elm Park, arrive and depart by train, often finish point
Finsbury Park, arrive by bus and leave by train or vice versa
Green Park, arrive on foot and leave by train or vice versa
Holland Park, arrive on foot and leave by train or vice versa
Hyde Park Corner, arrive by train and leave on foot or vice versa
Kilburn Park, arrive by train and leave on foot or vice versa
Moor Park, arrive and depart by train, often finish point
Newbury Park, arrive and depart by train, often finish point
Northwick Park, arrive by train and leave on foot or vice versa
Park Royal, arrive on foot and leave by train or vice versa
Queens Park, arrive and depart by train
Ravenscourt Park, arrive and depart by train
Regents Park, up and down in the lift, which can take 5 mins
St James Park, arrive and depart by train
Stonebridge Park, arrive and depart by train
Tufnell Park, up and down in the lift, which can take 5 mins
Upton Park, arrive and depart by train
Wembley Park, arrive and depart by train
Westbourne Park, arrive by bus and leave by train or vice versa
Wimbledon Park, arrive and depart by train
Woodside Park, arrive and depart by train

There are 3 stations where you go up and down in the lift. Or you might continue your journey by bus or on foot.
There are 11 stations where you arrive and depart by train, 7 changing but 4 same direction.
And 10 where you change mode between bus, foot and train. 3 of those might change by staying on the train (Chiswick Park, Green Park, Hyde Park Corner).

My conclusion is that by taking roundel (rather than external) photos, the route would remain much the same but you could reduce connections (in bold) by up to 10 and hence length by 90 mins. Considering the number of complaints about challenge length and Winter Wonderland, both of these would be solved by my suggested shorter Parks Challenge.

What do others think?
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Going Underground
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Going Underground »

Nah not for me but by all means have Christmas Park Challenge version II, I enjoy the suffering :wink:

Advance planning to avoid Winter Wonderland later this year it's on 23rd Nov - 6th Jan
So possible dates are 16th Nov or 13th Jan 2020
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RJSRdg
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by RJSRdg »

Either of those dates to me seem to be very close to this season's R15 dates so we may find that then the R15 has to be moved (to December?).

Personally I don't think the issue with WW is as big an issue as is being made out. You know it's on, you know stations may be closed later in the day, and you plan your route accordingly. Just like you plan to avoid Finzo close to kick-off time or at the end of a match.

One possibility is to catch the Picc to HPC via Green Park, come up, photograph HPC, catch a bus to Green, photograph Green, run to St James's Park, photograph that and away.
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by tangy »

Do we have ideas about the date for this years event? This so I can plan the 2019/20 Random 15 season events which usually fall in mid November and early January
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by dstock17 »

tangy wrote: 14 Jul 2019, 12:20 Do we have ideas about the date for this years event? This so I can plan the 2019/20 Random 15 season events which usually fall in mid November and early January
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by Going Underground »

Do we have any idea on engineeing works taking place and ideally would like this on this on the closest Saturday pre winter wonderland which is mentioned as late November - I wont be doing a full network fo CiN this year BTW
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Re: Christmas Park Challenge 2018 - 15th December - Finsbury Park

Post by xcooler123 »

Having done some research, Winter Wonderland is from Thursday 21st November 2019 - Sunday 5th January 2020. This is annoying in itself (before we even talk about the actual event!) as it slots perfectly into the gap traditionally between Round 2 (Saturday 16th November 2019 is CiN weekend) and Round 3 (normally 2nd weekend in January, so Saturday 11th January 2020).

Looking at the long term planned closures (these are subject to change but it's what we have), CiN weekend has quite a bit of the sub-surface out of action. This fine for R15s but could make Parks Challenge an already long and torturous challenge even longer plus not being able to complete some stations. Therefore, it seems pointless to move it for the Parks Challenge.

However, the potential Round 3 date currently has no LU engineering works and very minimal other engineering work on the rest of the network. Therefore, this could become the Parks Challenge date with Round 3 moving back to the 'traditional' Parks Challenge date in December. Winter Wonderland would probably affect an R15 less than Parks because you can stay underground and trains should still stop at stations. Access to stations in the vicinity of Winter Wonderland, particularly later on in the day, is the hard bit.

If that was the case, the calendar for the start of the year would look like this -
  • Round 1 - Saturday 21st September 2019 (most likely date from recent Facebook conversations)
  • Round 2 - Saturday 16th November 2019 (CiN weekend)
  • Round 3 - Saturday 7th/14th December 2019 (TBC)
  • Parks Challenge - Saturday 11 January 2020
This seems the best solution regarding spacing of challenges but of course the final decision rests with the BERC. Hope this helps at least.

EDIT - Just seen the comments above which tie in with a lot of what I have said :lol: :lol:

On a slightly unrelated note, I was in The Sheaf next door to Borough market the other night and it's a modern pub which has dart boards you can book out! Prices for food/drink are not cheap as you can imagine for the area but it's 2 mins walk from London Bridge station and the drinks choice is large for all tastes. Maybe somewhere to try out at some point. Link below for anyone interested.

http://sheaf.london/about/
Last edited by xcooler123 on 14 Jul 2019, 22:09, edited 2 times in total.
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