Zone 1 Race Report – Part 3, Oxford Circus to Kings Cross
…when we left Tom and Ewan, they were on a Central Line Train, heading out to West London and an encounter with a lift…
All this running around is starting to get to my thirst, and as I’ve already finished 2 litres of water (but still, thankfully, not needing the toilet – I guess all the sweating does help) I’m searching for a drink. Bond Street offers a risky answer. A trackside Coca-Cola machine. So with a pound coin ready, and an anxious ear listening for the beeping of the closing doors, I leap out, drop the coin in the machine, and press the button. And wait…
And wait…
And it rejects my coin!!! Argh! And now I need to wait for it to spit it back out, and I’m expecting the train to leave at any time. Come on! Finally the coin drops, just as the doors start to beep-beep closed. Grab the money, back on the Central line, and onto the next station. Still thirsty, though.
Of course it’ll be fine, I’ll try again with a different coin at the next station. Which is Marble Arch. No such luck, no drinks machine at all! Neep! Lancaster Gate is the next chance (and the last chance for a bit, as there’s a burst of changin about to happen). Lo and behold, there’s the machine, right next to our door. And it likes my coin, dispensing some sugar water straight away. Gorgeous. A little break before our second over-ground run between Queensway and Bayswater. A little break that turns into a 5 minute delay stuck in a tunnel with no information. It felt much longer than that, and I was getting really anxious, so congrats to Tom for keeping me under control.
Unliek other teams, we’ve not done any scouting out of stations and where exits are (expect one – I checked Warren Street on the weay to Vauxhall – remember that, it’ll be important later), so we pull into Queensway and have the whole length of the train to run to get to the exit., Which is a lovely set of lifts, with a lot of people. More hanging around doing nothing watching the clock tick down.
There’s a reason why every team did the Queensway/Bayswater over ground run. It gets this awkward corner done, and it’s only about 100 yards. And as Tom and I reached the Dirstrict Line platform what should we see but a “Earl’s Court” District Line pulling in – given that there’s up to ten minutes between each of these, it’s like manna from heaven to see it pull in.
So on we jump, and find fellow Runner Adham, who was with us for the “Elephant and Castle Loop.” He’s also Earl’s Court bound, and Tom and I are treated to yet another Adham sprint for the Picadilly line as we saunter, miss the tunnell, backtrack, and stroll onto the same carriage.
There’s now a twenty minute journey through cetnral London to reach Kings Cross. And that’s where the fun begins. With a rough 3 minutes per station count, If everything runs smoothly, Tom and I can finish in 2hr 58min. But the Northern Line awaits, as well as some of the longest changes in the stations…
I wondered when you were going to get round to finishing this!
Neil, I had to move house in between. One reasonI made it a four-parter; just like all the best Dr Who Stories. Perhaps you could consider that part three was pre-empted for the Olympics?
I knew you’d moved house, obviously.
I was worried you may have forgotten about it or just said “ah sod it!”
I’ve still got to tell Geoff where we all started and finished so he can put it in his Zone 1 Challenge section on his website.
You got the silver medal in the Zone 1 Olympics if I remember rightly didn’t you? ;-)