Running around the Underground :: Attempt 1
Attempt 1
28th May 2008
Steven Karahan, Andi James and myself
What started out as just me and Steve Karahan turned into me, SK and Andi James – a welcome addition – to make a team of three, running Steve’s route (hey, he was an ex-World Record holder so knew his stuff). Kevin Brown was recruited to do all day support for us too – it was probably the strongest attempt yet in terms of backup personnel.
Kevin was an enormous help throughout the day – we sent him ahead at various points to get in food, or take our bags to the end of an upcoming run so we didn’t have to carry them. At one particular point we sent him ahead via a technically quicker route while we went to “long way” necessary to fit in all the stations – and ended up ahead of him! Luckily he had his wits about him and realised know how to catch us up. Getting him ahead sufficiently was an ongoing struggle throughout the day – later on he was sent ahead and should have had ample time for a sit down and maybe even a pint away from the meeting point. As we called with the 5 minute warning he was caught out – we’d had a cracking couple of changes and had got to him some 10 minutes faster than he estimated. He only just got back to the station in time!
The attempt was going well and we looked – in Kevin’s words – “nailed on” for the record until almost the very end. Waiting at one of our last interchange stations news rumbled through that the service had been suspended due to a trespasser on the track further up the line. Kevin confirmed we had missed one by only a few minutes – and that was the last train through there for almost 50 minutes. Eventually one came, and as much for completions sake as anything we plodded on, knowing the record was pretty much gone. And so it proved – Steve bailed at Heathrow Terminals 1,2,3 and Andi & I continued to the end.
A very enjoyable first time out and I wasn’t at all put off by the incident at the end. A little dejected maybe, but philosophical. We had all agreed to try again as a team in the future and knew the route was capable of breaking the record. I got home in the wee hours and fell asleep immediately. It had taken it out of me – yet motivated me even more for the future.
Stations visited: 269/269
Time taken: 18 hours, 13 minutes and 57 seconds
Then Record: 17 hours, 56 minutes and 28 seconds
Outside by: 17 minutes and 29 seconds
The thread discussing the attempt is available on the Tube Challenge forum here
Andi wrote his own account of this day on his website here
Special thanks to: Kevin Brown – he bought a peak all-day travelcard and stayed on the network the whole day too. He could have been doing it!
Did the letter about the staff at WRU get posted….! I know you told me I probably shouldn’t read your blog… but…. I couldn’t resist… Geek
P
Not yet, went to Post Office for some stamps but the queue was so long I’d still be there now…
Welcome back! I am all over this shit dawg!
I’m impressed with the BBC so far as well for the most part
The worst part of the team in my mind is EJ, his interview with Bernie in Malaysia was just cringeworthy!
The best bit… has to be The Chain being back
And you’re right about the muppet, his blog is really good, he certainly is coming across better than when he was getting too excited behind the microphone!
Awww, you’re so sweet
)
Well, of course it will rain, as it always does when we actually get some time off together and make plans, don’t you just hate that guy called sod!!! Grrr! xx
Can’t wait, June is gonna be a fantastic month
D yay xx
:’( stupid depressing survival Sunday :’(
Why have you tagged Sheffied Untied… who are they? ;o)
Sorted
Woah…. a posting!!!!
You shouldn’t need any more things to keep you focussed, if you aren’t focussed now then you never will be….
It looks like Turkish coffee. If you’d called it that, everyone’d think you were very cultured.
YOU think oystercards are annoying…. try bloody working with the damn things then you will realise the TRUE extent of their annoyance
Was amazing, got better the further and further forward we got. Song of the night was either “Return of the White Rabbit” or “Girl From Mars” for me, or “Kung Fu” for that matter, on sheer crowd reaction alone
It worried me slightly when the person behind the glass at Gloucester Road rubbed the oyster card on the reader for several second when registering it…
I thought that your paper travel card was far better than anything with a chip in it
Of course it’s a valid hobby. When I went to that very 1st Z1 one day I really didn’t know what to expect and thought it would almost certainly be my 1st and last challenge. I wasn’t expecting to fit in at all or that people would talk to me. I couldn’t have been more wrong, everyone was friendly and chatty and of course the full network talk cropped up. I looked rather terrified at a tube map commenting “I wouldn’t know where to begin” It just looked so daunting, scary and impossible. Pete Lupton (Fat Buoy) said he had a route and would go around with me Amersham – Upminster. It never actually happened and it seems crazy looking back but it wasn’t even going to be a record attempt, just a “we will get around all the stations” which at the time just seemed impossible. The thought of ever doing this for a world record just didn’t seem a remote possibility, it’s madness this person I saw on the tube; Geoff Marshall is brilliant how could we ever even try for a GWR?
We supported Ric Brackenbury, David Scard and John Stark on a full network challenge visiting parts of the network we had never been near before and did a food drop for Peter Miller and his brother on our way to the start of the inaugral “snake challenge”. I can’t remember how the discussion came about to team the Browns up with John Stark and he came up with a full network route one lunch hour and we thought he was brilliant. Wow we have a route to do full the network this is amazing, this must be the only realistic possible route.
So we went out and did it on for children in need in November 2006, we hadn’t even run it through Transport for London journey planner but who cared, who knew we had a route!!
Since then Matt has teamed up with the Browns, Antony and his son Phil and my 2 boys Jamie and Ryan. We have spent many hours route planning at “headquarters” being the Air New Zealand office at Radius Park….
Wow actually there are hundreds of possible full network routes, Geoff Marshall isn’t so great after all, the time is not impossible to beat I have routes over an hour inside that!
So moving to the present day I have 2 world records, neither in great times and neither that satisfying or pleasing. Matt is incredibly unlucky also not to have 2 world records. The time has come down greatly and route planning, strategy and fitness have dramatically improved.
The alternative challenges and other events such as Zone 1 day, The random 15 championships and tube olympics are fantastic get togethers where we have met and made true and great friends. The social side after these events is also great fun with darts at the pub, a darts league and also social drinking and darts days without any tube challenging!
Yes it is indeed a valid hobby
So much for team spirit eh
Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi, Olly, Oi, Olly, oi, Olly Olly Olly, oi oi oi!
You know nothing
Ick.. I know someone with Crohn’s disease (a particularly complicated and tricky case as far as I know, though). It does not look fun.. :S
I don’t know much about it, they assure me it is manageable if indeed I do have it, but I’ll be tested further in due course. It’s wait and see time, taking it in steps – I am back at work tomorrow for the first time in a month and feel vaguely healthy for the first time in over a month, so these are good things
660-1 I get for that. Fancy a quid on it?
Don’t forget to also make a weekend trip to Schloss Wizbit um Deutsch zu sprechen
good luck wiv that he deserves more than most reminds me of July 8th 2008 i was determined that Sara would get her reward for all her hard work.
Hard Work? What hard work? Following you around
lol