Random 15 Championship: Round 6

Zone 1, Alphabet, All Lines - discuss them here
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EastActionWoman
Zone 4
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Joined: 19 May 2019, 10:02

Re: Random 15 Championship: Round 6

Post by EastActionWoman »

After a disastrous Zone 1 challenge, I wasn't holding out much hope for the R15, but thought I could hang on to 5th in the league if things went ok.

I think this was the first R15 I've done with a starting station in the middle of the network, so spent the morning working out all the likely stations I could head to from Covent Garden and the required door positions. I also made a note of stations temporarily closed by staff shortages, but luckily none of these came up in the station list.

An eastbound Picc train was the first to appear, so I jumped on that and decided to change at Holborn (where I saw James disappear into the distance) for Central to Bank. At Bank, I forgot how long the walk to Monument is (should have just headed down to Cannon Street instead), and missed the anti-clockwise Circle line I was hoping to catch and knackered myself out in the process. David was also on the platform, but hopped on a District line train shortly afterwards. This gave me a few minutes to plan my route and look up timetables, realising I wouldn't be able to catch the train from Moorgate to H&I.

When the next Circle appeared I took that to Kings Cross (via Tower Hill and Moorgate), then switched to Victoria line up to Highbury and Islington. I wanted to get the Overground across to Stratford and knew if I missed the connection there'd be a 10-minute wait for the next train. Luckily the station wasn't too busy so I was able to get to the platform with a minute to spare. Stratford was as expected for a Saturday afternoon and I used the wrong exit to change to the Jubilee line. Again, luckily, I don't think it mattered as there was a train in platform when I got there, and we left shortly afterwards.

Down to London Bridge (via West Ham and North Greenwich) for another good connection to the Northern line down to Clapham North. Heading back to Stockwell I was in the right carriage to make a quick interchange but got confused and thought I needed the northbound Victoria line. Quickly realised my error and headed back to the southbound Victoria to Brixton. The beeps were going on the train in platform but I managed to get on, though I still have the bruise on my arm from the closing door :roll:

Quick reverse at Brixton and then had to swap carriages at Stockwell and Vauxhall to get the right carriage for a quick change at Oxford Circus. Andrew C ran out of the carriage at Vauxhall as I ran in - he didn't see me. I assumed he was going to get a train out to Putney and go up the District line from there. If I'd done Oxford Circus at the beginning, I'd probably have done something like that. Another lovely interchange onto the Bakerloo line at Oxford Circus where I met up with Andrew again - he'd only be changing carriages at Vauxhall.

As we headed in to Paddington (Praed Street) I could see we had about seven minutes to get across to the H&C platforms. Obviously Andrew would make it easily, but I wasn't sure I would with my current fitness. Andrew had other ideas: "Seven minutes??!? Seven minutes is a stroll!" Sure enough, he disappeared into the distance, but was still on the platform when I got there and we waited another couple of minutes for the train to pull in. On down to Hammersmith (via Latimer Road) and the dash across the roundabout (lucky gap between vehicles). An eastbound Picc line pulled in almost straight away and the next District line wasn't for a couple of minutes, so jumped on that together and hoped the door position was correct.

Again checking departures for Earl's Court it looked like we only had a couple of minutes to make the change onto the Wimbledon train. Andrew hared off up the escalator and I trudged after him and dragged myself up the steps. He was already on the train, but yelled encouragement down to me. Of course, the train then sat there for another minute after I'd staggered on. From there it was a relaxing few minutes to Putney Bridge and the finish.

Very happy to finish joint second - many thanks to Andrew for the encouragement - and even more happy to finish joint second in the league. Completely unexpected! Really enjoyed my first season of challenges, even if it was a little longer than expected. Now got three months to finally get my foot healed and improve on my fitness ready for next season.

Thanks for organising Tangy and looking forward to seeing you all again soon.
Not a plus one :wink:
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Lunaticonthegrass
Zone 4
Posts: 247
Joined: 18 Nov 2019, 22:47
Location: North of Watford

Re: Random 15 Championship: Round 6

Post by Lunaticonthegrass »

EastActionWoman wrote: 21 Jun 2022, 18:42 ...where I saw James disappear into the distance...
You make me sound like the hero from an old Western film!
Full Network (270 stations) - 18:22:43
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1 pint in 18 seconds
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