Snake Challenge - The Return

[Going Underground]

Looks like I won't make this as Exeter have Cambridge away in the FA Cup which looks certain to be 3pm this day
That also means I will leave Raphael parkrun for another day but I may try and join you in The Green Man if we get back in time

[Going Underground]

The plans is definitely to head to The Green Man - should be there around 7pm all being well and will bring darts sheets

[EastActionWoman]

So how does this work? Do we all turn up at 11 and then work out what order we start in?

[Going Underground]

So how does this work? Do we all turn up at 11 and then work out what order we start in?

Last time I organised it we just drew numbers 1, 2, 3 etc for starting order - Could be a bit of a wait between starters depending on number of teams taking part....

[EastActionWoman]

Could be a bit of a wait between starters depending on number of teams taking part....

I'll bring sarnies and a thermos

[EastActionWoman]

great start - big gap between Epping trains from East Acton. Going to get there around 11.05.

[The Orange One]

Got the big table on the left at the Green Man... Beware of puddles

[greatkingrat]

Got the big table on the left at the Green Man... Beware of puddles

Did you spill your drink!

[EastActionWoman]

great start - big gap between Epping trains from East Acton. Going to get there around 11.05.

This pretty much set the tone for the day

Got to Epping in time to see off Adam on the 11.26 departure and I went next at 11.52. Was happy about this, as on paper, the connections were good enough for a 6h10m run.

Made quick interchanges and kept to the timetabled trains up until the District line from Victoria to Mile End. Then the train sat at Monument for five minutes due to a technical fault on a train at Tower Hill. On the way back in from Mile End, hopped out at Liverpool Street for a toilet break - luckily no queue, but by now I was 10 mins down on the timetable. Nice interchange at Moorgate, followed by a wait at Bank, and another good switch at Holborn - gate was open so was able to head straight down to platform rather than going the long way round. A six-minute wait at Leicester Square was followed by smooth runs at Charing Cross and Oxford Circus. TCR and Warren Street had trains on the platform when I got there, but waits at King's Cross and Baker Street meant I was now 20 minutes behind the timetable and getting worried about being caught.

My Jubilee line train was terminating at Wembley Park and was full of people going to the football. I didn't know if it would go into northbound platform or straight into southbound. TfL live arrivals also told me I'd just missed an Uxbridge train, so I wasn't really paying attention when I got off the train. By the time I realised there was an Uxbridge train across the platform it was too late to fight my way through the crowd to catch it. It was then a ten-minute wait until the next one, in which time David caught me up. (As it turned out, if I had caught this train, I think I would have got stuck at Ealing Broadway anyway.)

David didn't notice me as he was too fixated on heading to the loo before the next Uxbridge train arrived, and I hoped I'd be able to lose him again later. He'd said at the start that he didn't know all the short cuts, so thought that might make up for my lack of speed. He was on the southbound platform at Rayners Lane before me, but there was a minute before the Picc line arrived. I managed to get down to the back of the train for an easier interchange at Ealing Common, whilst he was still near the front. District Line was pulling out as we were pulling in, so both got same train to Ealing Broadway and he was on the Central Line train before me, but again I had time to get to right carriage for interchange at Bond Street.

At Bond Street, I had to run to make Jubilee connection, so now David knew he'd caught me and we got the train together down to Green Park. I knew there was no hope of keeping up with him there so said I'd see him in the pub and watched him disappear down the tunnel ahead of me. I also forgot the short cut so got stuck in the traffic jam down to the Picc line platforms, but a train pulled in as I arrived. Squeezed onto the train and the family near the door moved out of the way so I could get off quickly at South Ken. Dashed up to the Circle platform to meet David again where we both stared at the long list of District line trains listed on the departure board.

This is where it got very tedious - a ten-minute wait at South Ken, a 9-minute wait at High Street Ken, followed by a 7-minute journey from HSK to Earl's Court where we were caught by Tom and Omari. Another 9-minute wait split between Earl's Court and Turnham Green for a train to Acton Town, a 6-minute wait for a T4 loop train, and then a 20-minute wait for a T5 train at T123. Was very glad the guys were there as it would have been very dull hanging around by myself for all that time. So finally finished with a time of 7h31m.

We hopped onto the Heathrow Express back to T123 where the boys headed off to find a bus to Hatton Cross and I decided to bail and get Tfl Rail to Ealing Broadway and home. Central line was still playing up, so another 15 minute wait for a train to East Acton.

Will be interested to find out what the other finish times were. And I will definitely be aiming to do Hyde Park Corner and Green Park as early as possible in the Parks Challenge next month!

[The Orange One]

Snake Challenge 2019: The Results

Well, after 10 years hiatus, we brought the challenge back with 9 people split across 7 teams!! The order of dispatch from Epping (leaving an easy 5 minute connection at Woodford for a loop) was as follows:

1010 Dave McCormick and Thomas Wood
1021* Rob Lomas
1050 David Edwards
(There was then a 30 minute gap between trains so no 1110 departure)
1126 Adham Fisher
1152 Jenny Sherman
1210 David Gubbins
1228 Tom Kell and Omari Antony

This resulted in a series of mishaps, catchups and at one memorable point, an overtaking!! All teams were somewhat scuppered by delays in the Kensington area - final results are as follows:

DNF: David Edwards (bailed at Hatton Cross as he needed to leave early)
6th: Rob Lomas with 07:43:30 (unadjusted time 07:52:55)
5th: Jenny Sherman with 07:31:19
4th: David Gubbins with 07:13:05
3rd: Adham Fisher with 07:06:14
2nd: Tom Kell and Omari Antony with 06:55:01
1st: Dave McCormick and Thomas Wood with 06:34:52

The trip from Hatton Cross to the Green Man was, umm, especially splashy - hence the puddles comment - and being inside was quite the relief!

* Rob was supposed to leave on the 1031 train, but as this was cancelled we put him on the train before and are deducting 9 minutes 25 seconds from his time for making him start early

[The Orange One]

A coda to this event - Omari made a video of his and Tom's run around the route, which you can see here from 12 noon tomorrow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKVTGyRkQDE

It *is* 2 hours long, but it's also quite a fun watch, especially if you know the system well...

[EastActionWoman]

Loved that! Showed it to Sarah - if it's possible, she now thinks we're even madder than before

[The Orange One]

Coda coda - we did a 123-snake in September 2023 with 13 pairs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRAsHMjRnEg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swod6Mlys7g

Route being:

Heathrow T5 Acton Town Earl's Court High Street Kensington South Kensington Green Park Westminster Victoria Stockwell Elephant & Castle Waterloo West Ham Liverpool Street Embankment Piccadilly Circus Holborn Bank Euston Tottenham Court Road Ealing Broadway Ealing Common Rayners Lane Wembley Park Baker Street Paddington (Bakerloo/District) Edgware Road (Circle) Hammersmith (H&C)

As this was to mark the demise (or so we thought at the time) of the Travelcard we went with a Snake route that looks like a loss (i.e. eating our own tail)!

This saw a horrific coalescing of *six teams* as well as one of four, leaving the finishes as:
- team 1
- team 2
- teams 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9
- teams 8, 11, 12 and 13
(team 10 DNF'd)

[al]

Good videos, seems that (spoilers!) two teams hit the full brunt of the issues from the summary he gives at the end. I've never done the snake, I presume it is generally more fun if things are broadly working properly, rather than the prolonged waits experienced on that day?

[The Orange One]

Dave made some excellent graphs (we were able to extrapolate various data we have, as well as intertube logs, to figure out the exact trains everyone was taking) showing people's progress throughout the challenge.

As part of team 13 (back of the pack) we had a surprisingly smooth run - a lot of it was the usual SSR issues, though the lack of Ealing Broadway trains causing the six team pileup in the middle was unusual - I suspect part of the general Central line issues we had meant a lot of westbound trains were going towards Ruislip to stable or White City to spin. Those of us at the back of the pack (teams 11, 12 and 13, which bunched early on) had an excellent central section but were scuppered by long waits around the Ealing Broadway - Ealing Common - Rayners Lane - Wembley Park section, while the middle group (teams 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9, which were together by White City) had a bad central section but made up for it on the outskirts, resulting in a relatively close top few times!

All in all, a really fun day out and the Hammersmith H&C finish was absolutely appreciated.