June 20, 2008 at 11:03 pm · Filed under Challenges, Juneathon, Running, Salomon Challenge
There are 3 lines outstanding on the Salomon challenge - Northern Line (Bank branch), Victoria Line and the Bakerloo Line. With only 4 days to go it should still be quite manageable but the trouble is I am still ill.
For the past two weeks I’ve been hacking up chunks and have had to avoid deep breathing as it tends to lead to paroxysms of coughing. I’m not particularly under the weather but the symptoms have been harsh enough to scupper my Juneathon chances and to take me to the line with the Salomon Challenge.
Yesterday I was in central Londinium for a meeting and as I arrived more than an hour early I did a bit of walking (and shallow breathing) to fill in the missing sections of the Circle Line.
Only 3.5 km but it was an interesting section and the sky was beautiful.
I was approaching this building absolutely convinced it was the Houses of Parliament but I clearly had my bearings all wrong. It’s obviously Westminster Abbey but I didn’t realise that til I turned the corner and saw Big Ben leering out at me.
Another reason for me not to opt for a full time tourist guide position.
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May 25, 2008 at 12:33 am · Filed under 100 mile Challenge, Apparel, Equipment, Gadgets, Running, Salomon Challenge, Shoes
I was enjoying a nice leisurely Saturday evening when JogBlog reminded me that today was the start of our double challenge combo.
Some months ago, Salomon contacted me (and several others) with the offer of oodles of snazzy free stuff in return for the completion of some crazy running feat. I am quite prepared to commit to almost anything 2 months prior to any requirement to expend actual energy, so I said yes, thought up some crazy feat, then sat back and forgot about it while enjoying the snazzy free stuff.
Unfortunately decisions made in haste have a tendency to turn around and bite you and today is the start of that lesson.
My challenge is to recreate the central London tube line (zone 1 and most of zone 2), running between stations to create my own GPS version of the underground map. Over on the right sidebar you can see a my challenge widget kindly provided by Salomon. It suggests that I will be doing this in a mere 11 days. This is a LIE. The challenge was for a crazy running feat not a suicidal one. My aim is to complete the task within 31 days. I’m also not a “he” but I’m prepared to let that one pass.
I’m not entirely sure what I have committed to, beyond the obvious - hours spent wandering around in circles trying to find the shortest route to the next tube station on the brown line, heck, maybe I’ll even get to learn the names of all those tube lines. It’s very difficult to work out the distances between stations. The London tube map is not to scale so I’ve been printing off geographical versions, tracing pieces of string around the track and totting it all up on my abacus.
An incredibly inaccurate estimate of the track length is 100km, but when you factor in the above ground restrictions, I can imagine my total distance coming closer to the 100 mile mark. This then explains the second challenge. JogBlog is aiming to run 100m in a month as part of her Salomon challenge so we’ve decided to coincide start dates for a little bit of competitive rivalry. Can either of us actually hit the 100m target? Can I do it first?
If I win I may even be tempted to throw a game of scrabble for her.
Anyway, back to today. By 8pm the pressure has built up sufficiently for me to consider a run. I grabbed the Garmin, Nike+, N82 with Sportstracker and iPod. Tooled up with hundreds of pounds worth of gadgets I get on a bus and head towards one of the seediest areas of West London. I was not in slightest bit surprised that when I puffed past a group of lads on the North End Road one of them said “Shall we mug her for her….” I didn’t hear the what for part, I wasn’t really hanging around at the point. Maybe they took a shine to my incredibly red Salomon XT Wings?
I wanted to start off slowly today so aimed to tick off one of the smallest sections of tube line on my map. That’s the district line (green line), Kensington Olympia branch and Hammersmith branch. I made a bit of a bodge though and included West Brompton into the mix which, although part of the district line, is actually on the Putney branch. So I messed up on the easiest section of the whole month, I may have to write tube names up my arm for the trickier sections. As it is, I’m running with the Nokia N82 in my hand watching the little dot moving around the google maps image.
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So todays tally:
Salomon XT Wings Challenge
6 Tube Stations complete
5.26 km total
Sports Tracker map with photos.
Warriorwoman vs Jogblog 100m Challenge Combo
3.3 miles total
…and in case you are all feeling sorry to be missing out on all these challenges, there is a third one starting on the 1st of June. Tis the annual Juneathon where you commit to run every single flipping day for a month. Head over to Joggerblogger’s joint to sign up and if you have a Nike+ thingummy you can join the challenge here as well.
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