I have finally run the entire London Underground | Hacker News Reader

I have finally run the entire London Underground

harrystuberunners.blogspot.co.uk

70 pointssw00727 comments

That's a very confusing title. None of this was run underground.

The title of the blog is confusing as well, "Harry's Tube Runners". There was no running on a train, there was no running on train tracks.

It would be more accurate to say that he ran from tube station to tube station.

Okay, thanks for pointing that out. I've never been to London, or even on a subway train for that matter. Wasn't sure if there are walkable paths alongside the tracks or something (seems dangerous).

So did he run from station to station above ground following the tracks, or is it too difficult to follow the tracks (buildings, obstacles, etc)?

Yes it was overground as you can't literally run underground (on the tracks) as you'd kill yourself on the wires.

Therefore, I ran from station to station - worked out the routes before each run and ran with my iPhone and Google Maps and ran to each station on each Underground line. The distance is greatly lengthened because I couldn't run on the tracks but I still visited every station - some as many as 6 times as they appear on 6 different lines.

I had a picture outside of every single one and then went on my way to the next station. I ran over moterways, over footbridges, canals, fields, commuter packed pavements, marsh land, cobbled streets and got lost an awful lot.

"I ran over moterways, over footbridges, canals, fields, commuter packed pavements, marsh land, cobbled streets and got lost an awful lot."

Lol...brilliant, and truly inspiring.

In some (maybe even most, I have not really checked) of the tunnels in the Stockholm subway there are walkable paths alongside the tracks. They or off-limits for the public though. London underground tunnels are generally way more narrow than the tunnels here in Stockholm.

EDIT: To illustrate this.

London: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Why_London_Underground_is...

Stockholm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Swe_subway_switch_2005042...

I agree, the title is somewhat confusing and misleading. I thought he actually "ran" as in managed the whole tube, which lead me to expect some nice anecdotes about problems encountered and solved when operating a large modern underground rail network. When I realised it was "running" with your legs and feet I then thought he was a member of the maintenance teams and had actually run up and down all the tube lines during line closure for maintenance work.

That said, well done for getting off your arse and doing this.

Thanks. I would edit the title but I now can't seem to for some reason. Sorry for the confusion...

I guess most people would assume that running on train tracks wouldn't be a very sensible idea given the significant possibility of getting squashed by a train :)

It would be extra dangerous on the underground which has a live rail!

Technically the London underground has two live rails, one of them which is the return rail. No idea though if this makes it more dangerous than a normal three rail subway which uses the two main rails for the return current.

Only on Hacker News would someone read a story about being inspired by the death of an 11 year old child to raise several thousand pounds for charity, and promptly post a criticism of the wording of the title of the article.

I was expecting some insight about architecture or city planning, I assume that others just aren't as interested in life-affirming stories as learning about the world around them.

Or they are just language pedants incapable of connecting with a human story.

There's no need to be so dramatic, there are reasonable expectations that a story on HN will be about technology and interesting factoids, being disappointed that this is a more traditional story is not belittling his efforts.

It's not dramatic to suggest that a discussion forum actually provide useful commentary on a story beyond pointless meta-discussions about link titles.

It's also reasonable to expect that a story on hn might be about more than "technology and interesting factoids". The guidelines[1] suggest "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity"

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Inspiring story and noble cause. I just wish there was a bit more basic info for this. An photo gallery, a logo of the charity, a Twitter account to follow, i'd even like to donate to the cause, but can't see how :-( I want to engage.

Let me help you out..

The charity's website is www.hhho.co.uk - here you can find out all about Harry's campaign.

The charity JustGiving link is www.justgiving.com/steven-whyley

There was never a dedicated twitter account set up (there should have been), I did it all through my personal Twitter account.

I need to get some pictures uploaded to the blog - I didn't get round to it. I just had them on my Twitter and Facebook.

But I have made a video - hopefully this should give you an idea of what it was all about - http://youtu.be/a_mb6pXyrfA

Thanks for your kind comments...

Thanks for this, i just donated.

Awesome! Thanks so much, it's really appreciated.

Great read, confusing at first because of the dialect but I kind of liked trying to figure out what you were talking about. I didn't notice a link to donate until going back and actually hunting for it, maybe you should make it a little more prominent.

Kudos to this guy, that's a seriously large undertaking to get involved with and serious amount of pain to put yourself through.

My 24hr hack (mostly complete) to track your tube runs, either overground or underground, http://tuberun.com

example run: http://tuberun.com/runs/1-mon-jancewicz

This is awesome. Thanks for posting - what a great story.

An inspiring story. I couldn't even run for a bus.

It's never late to start with something like this for example: (c25k program) http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/2/2_3/181.shtml

The title is misleading. I thought this guy had been running every station or something (i.e. managing). I would have been much more interested in a story about how running the tube changed his life than something about him running around London.

Seconded. "Ran the entire length" would have been more accurate. I was expecting to see the London Underground equivalent of the chap who keeps the UK's tea kettles going after the East Enders programme ends on TV.

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