So we did Heathrow Terminal 4 at 05:02:55 to Amersham at 23:26:14 for a completion in 18 hrs 23 minutes 19 seconds.
We, perhaps slightly shamelessly, celebrated this as a new record in an empty Amersham station.
I also took a fair amount of footage through the day to hopefully make into a decent vlog soon.
Overview/TL:DR:
I am a tube nerd and had done plenty of planning for this (although still far from enough which cost us a huge amount of time through the day) but I'm pretty fat right now and didn't really have anywhere near good enough fitness for the attempt, whereas Adam knows next to nothing about the tube, and confessed the next day had agreed to do tube challenge thinking it was around 50-60 stations, not 272, and then felt too bad to back out, but totally outclassed me running from the first train to the last. It's weird and funny that a person with this level of knowledge has now done an FNC.
I had put so much time and thought into this run and discussed the fact I was doing it with so many people, that to be honest I was sick with nerves the week or so leading up to Friday's FNC. I just really didn't want to have to go back to everyone saying I didn't manage it. I know how hard a completion is, and how much a non-completion isn't the fault of the Tube Challenger in question, but I knew they wouldn't and it would feel a real anti-climax to go back and tell them I hadn't done it.
This level of stress, to be honest, lead me to periods of moodiness throughout the day as things didn't go our way, but Adam rightly took a more relaxed attitude, and I knew deep down this was all just meant to be fun at the end of the day. I did lose my head a bit when a seemingly random delay of 2-3 minutes of our last train to Amersham was potentially going to cost us the 'record', cursing TFL for the world to hear aha.
Honestly the worst things that happened to us through the day were almost all at least partly self inflicted. While the bus at Edgware did drive past somewhere signed as a stopping point for them. The fact I hadn't scouted out the bus station at all, and given relatively little consideration to the buses used on the journey (kind of a mental block with the name *Tube Challenge*. I just kind of hand waved the idea of getting on buses between stations as totally not an issue which was so stupid in hindsight) was incredibly poor planning. Similar as we didn't make it to the stop for a 384 at High Barnet in time because we spent 5+ minutes looking for the stop in all the wrong places around the station. A sign at Brixton suggesting the train we'd pulled in on was actually going to wait 3 more minutes than the one that pulled in after it, which I should have known better than to trust, meant I foolishly hopped off the right train and across to a totally wrong one, costing a few minutes. My fitness also missed us a train at North Ealing and probably other places. So there was a huge amount of time on the table in this run just by cleaning up our own act. The Elizabeth Line was in a state all day so I like to imagine it sucked up all the bad TfL energy.
That's not to make out the network was perfect by any means. It really really wasn't. But the problems were the 'train arrives a few minutes late' variety compared to the 'half the Northern Line has shut down' type. So I really don't have much grounds to complain (although I did do frequently throughout the day aha).
While the record since the opening of Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms hasn't been particularly coveted, with few attempts made, and Guinness womping up the requirements for evidence and pretty much pushing themselves out the picture as a result, we felt like, despite maybe being a little uncouth, celebrating the fact we'd done the 272 in the currently fastest known time. If people think it's not really comparable as a record to much more impressive, and sanctioned, runs like the 15:45 in the 270 era I do get that, but I hope you see my position too. One of the first questions people would ask when I said I was doing this was 'whats the current record?' so I had to say what was publicly known to be the fastest time aka 18:23:48, and therefore could claim the record if that was beaten.
Anyway, I had an amazing time and, while my expected gap in time between FNC attempts has probably increased due to the unexpectedly high mental strain of the day (the physical strain absolutely being expected), I certainly plan to do it again because of how enjoyable it was.
Write up of the actual day:
So we nipped down to Heathrow Terminal 4 Premier Inn on the night of Thursday 27th April and tried (and failed) to get some sleep before getting up at 4am on the way to the tube.
The day started with a bad omen as I made a member of TFL staff quite angry by wrongly assuming the slightly open (and notably unlocked) gate at terminal 4 was fine to slip through at around 04:50, turns out it wasn't...
But anyway the train arrived and we dutifully noted the time it closed its doors and started a stopwatch that stopped working about 12 hours in so clock time had to be the basis for our time.
Everything went very fine up the Piccadilly Line as all our focus essentially went to the first run of the day from West Kensington to Kensington Olympia.
I bolted out of West Ken at 06:02 a stupid pace that I could never keep up, meaning I fell to a fast jog quite soon after, but I ran the whole thing, which got us on the 06:10 Olympia train with a bit of time to spare, but also used up most of my energy for the day and that left me lying on the train floor cursing my lack of fitness while Adam giggled and took pictures of me splayed on the train floor
. Getting on this train was the big win we needed to kickstart our day however.All went fine for a good while as we went up to Edgware Road, down to Hammersmith and ticked off the Richmond branch, despite seemingly having our train to Richmond delayed a few minutes. Similar smooth sailing to Ealing Broadway, before the train waiting a few extra minutes to collect passengers there and me realising I wouldn't be able to completely run the gap between any 2 stations again through the day, as I half ran, half quick marched between West Acton and North Ealing. Just missed a train at North Ealing but was early enough in the day not to bother us too much, although I felt bad as my poor fitness in comparison to Adam was the sole reason we missed it. Up to Uxbridge and back to Ickenham was all fine as we prepared for another run to West Ruislip that turned into a similar fusion of running and fast marching.
We'd spent all morning longing for the West Ruislip to Hainault train. And enjoyed the 80 minutes on it with food, drink and laughter. The Hainault shuttle and up to Epping also went fine as we marvelled at the amount of farmland being served by the tube.
Got a bit lost running from Leytonstone to Leytonstone High Road as Google maps appeared to make a sharp turn on an elevated walkway look more like the loose curve of a standard road, but we made it with plenty of time before the next overground train and also for a few seconds left the wrong side at Walthamstow Queens Road, before correcting and running to the Victoria line.
Down to Warren Street, nipping to Goodge Street, and controversially not getting the first train to pass through for an Edgware train 1 minute later all seemed like good going. However, after Adam grabbed a baguette in the time we had before a relavant bus would arrive, I was stunned to see no live departure boards at this huge bus station, basically no staff, and multiple places listed as the place a bus would stop here. I went to what I believed to be the 142 stop but was very angry to see it drive right past us and few other punters trying to get on it, what combination of our mistake or TFLs it actually was, I will happily swear that that bus station is not fit for purpose in terms of usability.
I quickly explained to Adam we'd now need a different bus to Canons Park station, and ran after a stopped 186 a few minutes later successfully, making sure to check with the driver it was going to Canons Park. Riding that and then the Jubilee 1 stop to Stanmore. Before a 4 minute wait, made uncomfortable by out of order toilets, for our train to Baker St. A solid change to a H&C train at Baker Street gave us a chance to celebrate being half way through the station count at Great Portland Street. Before a tiny wait for a direct Mill Hill East train put me into a euphoric mood that would sadly soon come crashing down.
Basically, we got catastrophically disoriented looking for the right bus stop outside High Barnet, and despite having like 5 minutes to find it (we went to multiple wrong ones on both sides of the road), were only able to sprint for a 384 bus that we were unable to get. This was a big blow and hurt a lot as it was essentially my fault for not checking enough where the stop was and panicking in the moment (panic that made me assume the stop would 'obviously' be up the long ramp at High Barnet not the other exit that seemed to only go to a carpark.) We waited another 5 or so minutes for a 307 and had to gruellingly run up Cockfosters Road in the 3pm heat. At least then we could relax until Earl's Court, so I ate and drank a bit more then and Adam had some more sleep (as he did basically throughout the whole day).
Down to Wimbledon and a bit annoyingly our tram was delayed like 3 minutes seemingly just due to them 'checking tickets' by the tram and the driver just not leaving the staffroom for a bit longer. Why on earth they checked tickets for a tap on tap off tram that started at that station is beyond me. Run from Morden Road to Morden was again knackering but they all were so nothing new aha. Change at Stockwell was good but an incorrect Dot Matrix Indicator suggesting our train would be waiting a long time at Brixton made me override the obvious instinct of 'first train to pull in is going to be the first to pull out' costing us a couple of minutes and again frustrating me to no end.
Up to Kennington, along to Battersea Power Station and back to Nine Elms for another run to Vauxhall. Victoria wasn't as busy as I worried and neither was the train from Sloane Square to Tower Hill and then 1 more along to Aldgate. Aldgate East was refreshingly close to run to.
We jumped right onto a c2c at West Ham but one that only went to Barking and we'd have to change for Upminster. But this is when I realised something was wrong. We'd got on a c2c as soon as we could at West Ham, but we were suddenly massively trailing the 'perfect but not too perfect' set of timings I'd made that we'd been pretty strongly following throughout the day. I looked in horror as I had to tell Adam I'd somehow put the journey time from Aldgate East to West Ham down as 2 minutes. Rendering the whole thing pretty useless to us from now and meaning we were not on the the sub-18 hour timeline we thought we were. We'd have to make up serious time to get back on for the 21:20 at North Harrow, the station we considered the marker for 'really being at the end'. But there was a lot of leeway in the timings I'd set, as there had been all day (hence why we were still on the semi perfect timing at this point) so we had a chance to do it.
Anyway. A swap at Barking, and a district line train back from Upminster that Adam just laid on the floor of and slept on, getting a lot of funny looks from the public that gave me a much needed laugh on a long day.
The jubilee line was on minor delays at this point, which I angrily explained to Adam happened every single rush hour. So we waited 5 minutes at West Ham on a train that was very busy at first but cleared quickly. Sadly we just missed a jubilee back from Southwark to London Bridge, but nothing we could have done to get it.
Long old change at London Bridge but I was happy to run through the station shouting excuse me and sorry at short intervals as I weaved through everyone. Down to Elephant and Castle was fine and the change wasnt bad. However we hadn't made up much time due to the slow jubilee and the tight miss. So the Bakerloo waiting at E&C terminating at Queen's Park was a bitter pill to swallow. But we tried to rest as best we could for the final met line stretch coming soon.
I remember someone saying somewhere on this site that you could use trains that weren't the tube if they were on the same tracks, which would have saved us time to Harrow and Wealdstone and right at the end but:
1. I wasn't certain my memory was correct
2. I really felt that wasn't in the spirit of Tube Challenge, so for me personally I didn't want to do that.
So time ebbed away as the next Bakerloo only went to Stonebridge Park. Then utter disaster as the following jubilee was about 3 minutes delayed, arriving at H&W at 21:09 instead of 21:06, and meaning we had to watch the 21:08 Bakerloo back to Kenton pull out as we pulled in. Seriously jeopardizing our chance to get the 21:50 at North Harrow which was the last train that even gave us a chance of the record. I nervously waited 8 minutes for the overground train to Kenton and thought about how I had to give absolutely everything in these next 2 runs.
But then another disaster, Adams day ticket had had a few issues across the day and behind me at Kenton he'd failed to get out. But I was so focused on giving everything in the run I'd bolted out the station without noticing, only turning to see he wasn't right behind me at the left turn down the road at Kenton. I don't know how to describe how I felt in this moment, but scared and confused would be the basic way to say it. I didn't know what to do so just stood on the spot and took my rucksack off to get my phone out and call Adam, before seeing him sprinting towards me along the road, which then meant I had to turn and run in that moment with a phone in one hand and an open heavy rucksack in the other, compromising my performance on this relatively short run and turning it into a painful workout for both my legs and arms.
I later found out Adams ticket had not let him out at Kenton, as I ran off none the wiser, and he had to be let out by staff, and then couldn't see me outside, while not knowing the way to the station. He wrongly guessed it was to the right and started running to find me, before smartly asking someone random on the street where Northwick Park station (he only just remembered the name of the station which saved our bacon) was, and had to sprint the other way. Adam is much, much fitter than me, but he was totally out of breath at Northwick Park too, so I can only imagine the speed he went at down Kenton high street, while he didn't bring the tube knowledge to this challenge, I think this moment was his crowning glory for showing his determination and strength to do all this for a challenge he knew so little about.
We hopped on the next train to Preston Road needing really good luck from the tube gods to even have a chance at making the 21:50 at North Harrow. Thankfully we got some of that luck. An Uxbridge train signed as coming second in a few minutes actually arrived first and in quick time. And the train only waited at Harrow On The Hill for a short while, which as someone who lived in Harrow until very recently, has become a very rare thing in recent times on the met line at Harrow. A 2 minute wait in the platform on a northbound train has become weirdly standard. But my god we were lucky.
We pulled into West Harrow a little after 21:40, giving a gap that would have been fine on a normal day, but was questionable after almost 17 hours on the tube on very little sleep. I honestly gave everything I had on that run to North Harrow, absolutely everything. When we got to the station and the Northbound side of the dot matrix in the lobby was empty I was dreading the worst. But when Adam, at the platform slightly before me, shouted there was a Watford train in 2 minutes I honestly wanted to burst into tears, but settled to instead burst into pools of sweat.
The realisation/remembrance that there was only 1 minute scheduled between our train coming into Watford and the next one leaving it made me want to cry for other reasons. I thought the tight timings for changes were done, now I had another massive, record deciding, one in front of me. I stressed my way to Watford and we flew across the platform to change trains with probably around 20 seconds to spare.
Now even I started to relax a bit as all we could do now was get on the trains that appeared. My girlfriend also met us on our train from Moor Park to Chesham to further lift our spirits. We bounced in and out of Chesham, knowing the schedules had us down to finish in about 18 hours 21 minutes, but I didn't trust anything at this time.
I sprinted across to the other platform at Chalfont and Latimer for old times sake and was sad/angry to see the scheduled 23:20 at Amersham 3 minutes late for seemingly no reason. An earlier 'check front of train' which turned out to be a Chiltern train on the board made the whole thing also more disorienting.
As it looked as though a random delay on the last train of the day was going to cost us a record I admittedly got quite angry despite there being no need and having been totally happy with just getting a completion the day before, which we were now certain to be able to do, a fact Adam was resolutely pointing out to me throughout the day.
As we got on the delayed Amersham train I twigged after a minute or so that the record might still just be on, fairly humouring Adam and my girlfriend in relation to my moodiness at Chalfont.
Our cheap Amazon stopwatch had packed up much earlier in the day, but luckily on the Bakerloo I'd done the numbers on what clock time we'd need to be before for a record, which was 23:46:43. And we pulled in 29 seconds before that time.
I couldn't bring myself to celebrate until quickly checking my maths were in order but then collapsed to the floor in tiredness, relief and a whole host of other emotions while Adam went for a shirt-off, wooping round the platform style of celebration.
Anyway, I can totally see why people wouldn't necessarily rate this 'record' particularly highly. We left plenty of time on the table on this run, and it is very much a beatable time. You could also say the handful of completions before this one means competition is pretty thin on the ground, although I think that reasoning is a little disrespectful to the people who have made the effort since Battersea opened.
I just hope no one's thinks I'm being arrogant or disrespectful by touting a 'record' on my first attempt, as that's really not the case here. More just some fun icing on the cake of having done tube challenge.
This was a great experience, but I have to confess having so much respect for the people that have done this 10,15,20+ times before. The mental fatigue of the day, and the factor of having to wake up so early, were aspects I didn't respect enough before Friday. It was a brutally long day and the period of 11-15 hours in where you've been going so long but feel still far from the end were absolutely brutal.
I do also though hope that, perhaps, a new generation of tube challengers can come through on this new 272 network, have a lot of fun, and maybe put that record down to something comparable to what was done at 270.
Finally I do really want to thank everyone on this forum, you've all been a great help and support and I wouldn't have actually gone and done this without you. Hope you've enjoyed reading this if you've made it this far.
Laurence Gill & Adam Hughes - 272 stations, 18 hours 23 minutes and 19 seconds 28/04/2023
