Tube Challenge - We are not afraid

Defiance and geekiness rolled into one
Regular readers of the blog will know that my co-bloggers Neil and Geoff hold the Guinness World Record for travelling around all 275 London Underground stations in the fastest possible time. (18 hours, 35 minutes and 43 seconds in case you're wondering). A few months ago an unofficial Zone 1 challenge (20th May) had a big group of people racing around just Zone 1 of the tube. Now Geoff's thought of doing a big challenge again and I've lifted the words from his site:

"The tube means a lot to us. We travel on it a lot. Sometimes we travel round the whole system just for the fun it. The 'tube challenge' community is as fucked off about this as the rest of the world, and we would like to say : We Are Not Afraid either.

'Tube Challenge Community' ? Well - there are a bunch of people (call us geeks if you really must!) who do this on a regular basis - Go round the whole tube system to compete who can do it in the fastest time possible......

Ken Livingstone shortly announced afterwards an official Relief Fund for families of the victims of the bombings, and so because of this, here is what we are doing:

A mass team tube-challenge attempt, for all of us to get round the entire network in a day.

We're not trying for the record - as we recognise that chunks of the system (e.g. the central part of the Piccadilly Line) will not be open for a long time, but we want to do it soon - whilst the memory of what has happened is still in people's minds.........

i) Charity. People often do this and raise a few pounds & pennies. This time everyone gets sponsored in aid of the bomb relief charity and we really go for it. Let's get thousands of pounds this time.

ii) Defiance. Solidarity. Togetherness. We are not afraid, and we well get back on the tube - the whole tube - and prove that we are more than happy to ride it. We say "Fuck you terrorists", and we will do the thing that we do best - ride around the tube system."

Visit Geoff's site for more on this and when it's likely to be (late August) and email him if you're up for it.

And as he likes having the last word, I'll let him have it:

"Anyone is welcome to take part. I have already had people interested from overseas who say that they will fly in for a couple of days to London to do this. This is brilliant. Thank you. You are more than welcome in our fantastic capital city."

London Underground; Tube Posted by annie mole Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Permalink COMMENT HERE
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