Overground Challenge May 23

[Mountain Man]

So this week I completed my first challenge of note, a 113 station all Overground stations. From the outset it’s worth being clear I wasn’t chasing a fast time, I tried to be logical and efficient in my route but I ain’t a runner and living several hundred miles means route practice was non existent. I wanted to enjoy it not rush it. I have a full network attempt in the planning stages, and this was about learning for that both psychological and practicalities as well seeing bits of London as an occasional visitor I wouldn’t normally see. My original route was about 12h 46 mins from Battersea to Acton Central.

All started well, a coffee stall at Victoria open at 6am provided enough energy to get me through the first couple of hours. The Battersea train had half a dozen passengers much to my surprise, and without too much drama I knocked over the trio of New Cross, West Croydon and Crystal Palace. The middle of the 3 providing a useful for Greggs to get breakfast from.

Up and round to Stratford I had hope of gaining enough time to get 30 mins ahead on plan by catching an earlier Romford service, alas the morning rush and inopportune bottlenecks meant I missed by 15 seconds. Romford, Upminster and Barking all ran smooth. A momentary train delay and a quick transfer put me 15 mins ahead at Barking Riverside, a part of London it’ll be fascinating to see evolve. Shortly I lost it again as I headed back to Euston as there was no way to lock in that advantage in the return trip to Watford.

From there I hit a lucky streak, getting round to Liverpool Street in double quick time gained me 15 mins, changing my order for the 3 branches, I gained more through the fact that as I could now catch a Greater Anglia to Hackney Downs and use of the Victoria line. Finishing with the Chingford branch, I was about an hour up on my plan. All started then to slow down, with delays round to Richmond. Running low on energy, the undefined wait at Clapham Junction made a lifetime out of 15 minutes. Wrapped up at 18:42 at Shepherds Bush, a frustrating 12 hours 9 which would have been under 12 without the final delay.

I know by the context of historical times, it’s not quick, but was really valuable. The importance of food and energy management will really help the full network attempt, along with having some pre documented chunks of route, evening redoing the Liverpool Street branches on the move was harder than I thought it may be. Even though I thought I knew London’s transport network well, the amount of bus and rail connections I hadn’t spotted surprised me.

I would add, as a challenge in its own right, it was a huge amount of fun, with the vast majority of it being above ground meant there was a sightseeing element which was a lot of fun compared to tunnels and bigger air conditioned units made the journeys more comfortable for a first time

[jrparkin]

Yes knowing when to eat (and buy) extra supplies is necessary. Of particular note is a newsagents outside Stanmore station that Geoff pointed out when he did his End of the Line video for that station

On my failed attempt last October I ran out of food by 7pm, and nearly out of drink too. Unfortunately they do close the kiosks late evening so I couldn't pick up anything else

On my recent FNC on the Vienna U Bahn, I did actually do some running between connections, however this meant I needed a lot of fluid. I drank about a litre in total! I carried one bottle of Coke to start, a sandwich and four protein bars. A further bottle of Power something or other was purchased from a vending machine late on

[Mountain Man]

Yes knowing when to eat (and buy) extra supplies is necessary.

Definitely, I was surprised how energy sapping it was. I think it was the need to stay concentrating for so long. Only on a few of the longer stretches could you really switch off.

Got a year to tweak my full network route, and building up a list of kiosks etc is definitely part of the plan. Given I'm not chasing a time I may build in a couple of proper 10/15 min stops just to make sure. I want to enjoy it, not just survive it

[jrparkin]

Once you have the route nailed, write it down and put it somewhere safe. Don't memorise it because that's what I did and that caused me to panic at Rayners Lane early on when I got on a Metropolitan line train. I got off and doubled back because I thought I'd made a mistake when in point of fact I actually hadn't.