Gambling, Running & Mistakes
Lupine Racing #2
It was a tranquil morning as I woke on campus, unsurprisingly far too early as I had to be somewhere almost 100 miles away by noon. The day would beckon a new experience for me: a checkpoint-oriented Lupine Race. I’d been peripherally aware of them of course- I originally had planned to enter the Benelux Bounce earlier that spring, but after assessing my finances I realised the more prudent move would be to compete in the Slovenian Arrow in August, combining what will now be 3 separate Lupine Races (including July’s ‘Scenic Route’) into a single Interrail Pass to maximise value, which may earn me some obscure sort of record.
Joining me on my first Lupine Race for 9 months (a figure that surprised me when I realised as it still feels like the Baltic Brutal was yesterday, but apparently not) would be the beginnings of the Warwick Endurance Racing team, with two of the five members for Istanbul (and hopefully beyond) joining me- for the purposes of this article, I will refer to them as C and M. Also joining me were A, eldest member of the leadership team for our similarly fledgling go-karting efforts, and competing against us all would be P, who I am racing alongside for the Slovenian Arrow.
As has become customary for our jaunts into the capital, we set off by bus (which was typically creaky yet vaguely on time) to Leamington Spa, before whizzing down the Chiltern Mainline into Marylebone. The latter journey is surprisingly short at just 85 minutes, weirdly far more comparable to Avanti’s Everos on the competing Coventry route than their direct competitor of WMR who take more than 2 hours for the trip- but I digress.
The starting point for this debut event, lasting 5 hours in total and containing 16 checkpoints with points values from 1-5 reflecting their difficulty (5 being the hardest) and a bonus point for the first teams reaching 4 of the furthest points (1 for each cardinal direction), would be by St-Mary-In-The-Fields Church, right next to the rather lovely food-hall in the crypt. We opted Slim Chickens at Leicester Square instead on this occasion, which was rather tasty and surprisingly affordable if you could find the deals.
We began as the clock struck 12, making a break for Charing Cross station with no real plan in mind- this was perhaps our first mistake. U-turning to enter the tube station, we rushed to the Northern Line to head to our first checkpoint in Hampstead. In the chaos, we lost A as we boarded, eventually linking back up with him in Hampstead half an hour later.
The Hampstead checkpoint saw us attempting to run through the scorching heat, which somehow posed more of a challenge on this occasion than it did on our private event later that month. We reached it quickly but the speed had worn us down, and here my memory (very possible as a result of the fatigue) grows foggy.
We trundled to London Zoo, again running too quickly to reach the checkpoint, took a slow bus to Tottenham Court Road, grabbed the next checkpoint in Holland Park and continued to push on. Our pace had slowed considerably, and in retrospect we had already lost. Despite this, our district line journey to the North Korean embassy was rapid, although a navigational error after that saw us lose yet more time.
Attempting to seize the only path to victory left, A and I divided from M and C, taking the Elizabeth Line and Thameslink to London Bridge in an attempt to grab the Greenwich checkpoint. Sadly, the cancellation of the Thameslink train from Farringdon to Greenwich left us unable to complete this route, so we earned points by taking an optional half hour break, secured two additional checkpoints and reached the finish with 10 minutes to spare.
In the end, I had matched C and M who took the conventional route, with A lagging slightly behind due to not securing the first checkpoint. C, M and myself ended up a tolerable 8th, 9th and 10th, which was okay given the inefficiency of our route but left us yearning for more. In stark contrast, P had executed a flawless victory, winning an entry into the Scenic Route which he has graciously donated to me. I seek to do him proud.
In the end, I think we gambled on maximising our skills in the chaos and we lost. It is pre-planning, extensive knowledge and decisions made with alacrity rather than satisficing that excel in this competition. Despite that, I am proud of our efforts and was impressed by the performances of all my teammates. We had an enjoyable meal at the finish point in Waterloo before heading back- I remember rather little of that return, so we can safely assume it was uneventfully pleasant.
Best wishes and I hope you enjoy the photos,
Reuben Goodchild
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