Reuben’s Trip Reports

(Image retrieved from Lupine Racing Tracker)

The clock strikes the start time and you are already on the move, making a be-line for the nearest station. Maybe you knew your first checkpoint in advance, maybe you are starting from nothing but one thing is certain: you’ve just been given what seems like a colossal amount of planning to do in very little time at all. Don’t panic, I’ll break down the process for you.

Where to go after the start:

Your first order of business is to ensure you are going to the right place after leaving the start line. This is the bit that can usually be researched in advance, based on the location of the start. You are usually looking for a station that is easy to reach from the start with plenty of connections, with the latter being more important.

To provide examples of where to go based on the next few races:

• The Scenic Route Edinburgh Start- Head towards Edinburgh Waverley. It is within walking distance of the start and is home to all of your onward options. It is also right next to the bus station.
• The Scenic Route London Start- Head towards Farringdon, which has frequent trains to St Pancras, Kings Cross and Euston. You’ll almost certainly need 1 of the 3 to travel north. If you haven’t figured out which you need to use by your arrival in Farringdon, get on the Circle/Hammersmith & City/Metropolitan Line going west as it passes all 3.
• The Slovenian Arrow- Head towards Bruxelles-Midi. It has the best international connections and is reachable quickly via a tram or taxi. You can also walk there but you may miss the best options as it is a little slower.
• The Trans-European- Head towards Herne Hill. It has direct trains to both St Pancras and Victoria. I can almost guarantee you’ll need one or the other for your onward route. There is a hidden option as well for this, but I’m keeping my cards close to my chest on that.

Please remember that you can also use taxis within cities! If you have mobility issues, call yourself an Uber or a local equivalent to your target station 5 minutes before the start, ensuring it is there from the word go!

Prebooking your first moves- Optional but useful:

As much as Lupine Races are spontaneous, there are certain patterns that can be identified by people who have done them before. If you are on a rogaining event this section is largely irrelevant, but for classic and short format events there are certain trends that can guide advance bookings.

Having your first couple of trains/buses planned and booked in advance helps ensure that you are able to take the best options (availability can be limited), allowing you to start with your best foot forward.

Here are some golden rules to follow- you should be near the front at the start if you adhere to these:

• Check for any obvious routes. If you are in Belgium heading southeast, it’s probably worth booking the first train that you can catch towards Germany. If you know you have to cross the channel, book the first eurostar you can confidently reach (bearing in mind the time it takes for check-in).
• Make a list of trains/buses that are likely to be useful. This only takes a few minutes and will give you a good idea of the urgency of your first move, avoiding unnecessary panic.
• If you are going to be using the train a fair bit, buy an Interrail pass. You are unlikely to regret it if you do, but you may regret it if you don’t as last minute prices can be extortionate.
• Use the knowledge you get in advance. If you know that the first checkpoint is in Strasbourg, book through to Strasbourg. If you know that you must travel north, it may be worth booking a train north.

Those with more experience reading this may realise that this is a rather narrow outlook of what you can book in advance. The reality is that more experienced racers frequently book far more than this, but this is an imperfect science largely reliant on guesswork so I won’t dig into this.

Identifying & Booking your route:

Okay, you are now on the way to a station and probably have a rough plan of the direction you’ll start heading. What now? How do you bridge the gap from that to a full plan? I’ll split it into a 5-step process for simplicity. Please note that this only sort of applies to the Scenic Route. I’d only offer advice for that sort of event afterwards as I’m still not familiar with the optimal strategy.

1: Break down the route as much as possible.

Does your route have a single mid-point? If so, only look for the route to it at this stage. You can loop back round to the rest of the route later but tackling it all as a single block may be overwhelming and will only slow you down.

2: Google Maps, Rail Planner and DB Navigator.

Get googling! If your route has 3 options for the first checkpoint and a single middle, that’ll be 6 queries. It sounds like a lot but it is really only a couple of minutes. Figure out the fastest overall route, ensuring that you adapt the departure time to match the arrival time for the second halves.

After googling it, plumb in the same details for trains into Rail Planner (the Interrail App) and DB Navigator. Make sure everything matches, and assume Deutsche Bahn (DB) are right if it doesn’t match. For buses, check using operator websites. Try to pick options that are actually bookable online- if not, identify where you could buy the tickets.

3: Sense check the ‘fastest route’- Trust your gut.

Okay, you now have your ‘fastest route’, but is it right for you? Check connection timings- anything less than 15 minutes is risky, check the punctuality of previous trains/buses along the same route- are they getting delayed. If it doesn’t feel right, explore alternatives that result in a similar enough arrival time at the destination. A conservative but rapid and reliable route is usually better than a route with a ton of tight connections that is only theoretically a little quicker.

4: Deeper research.

Here is the tricky bit that separates the winners from those in the lower positions of the Top 10. As helpful as journey planners (such as the 3 aforementioned choices) are, their data is fundamentally incomplete and there may be quicker options which they simply don’t show. There are only really two ways to circumvent this- use existing knowledge or dig, dig and dig more.

Now, how do you dig to find these connections? There is no one way about it. It is all about finding tricks, obscure websites, references on google street view, random reviews, trip reports, word of mouth, foreign language booking pages and more. Some may resort to local fixers but I don’t think they are necessary for any European races.

5: Committing to & booking a route.

After Steps 3 & 4, you should now have a route which you are comfortable trying to book. I wish I could tell you there was an easy way to sort all of it out, but there just isn’t.

If you have an Interrail pass, that will cover almost all of the trains (it’ll tell you when it is valid on the rail planner app, ignore warnings about eurostars- that’s a bug that has not yet been fixed). You’ll still need to purchase seat reservations where required- I plan to make a guide about them at some point but search for and use the Seat61 web page on Interrail reservations in the meantime.

For buses the story is significantly more complicated. The vast majority are now bookable online but actually making these bookings can be tough due to the sheer number of different websites. To name a couple (although you will need more), check Flixbus and Busbud to get started. The best way to find the right website quickly is usually a simple google.

If you come across any connections that you planned but cannot book online, I would advise attempting to reroute via a comparable connection which is available online. However, many experienced racers have relied on these offline options to great success in the past, so your mileage may vary.

Dealing with disruption:

We all know what they say about best laid plans and your average Lupine Race is no different. All competitors will face unexpected surprises, delays, hiccups and potentially the odd scary moment. What separates the wheat from the chaff is how you navigate these situations- these situations helped @thelazyracer win in 2025, just as they snatched the win away from him in 2023.

There is no silver bullet here but the best solution is always found with a clear mind. Whatever the situation, keep as calm as you can and work around it. You are likely to lose money from booking connections that you cannot use- this is an unfortunate part of racing at this speed and is largely unavoidable.

If you are in a financial situation where you can’t afford to lose ~£100 from missed connections I recommend slowing down and giving yourself generous connections at all of the checkpoints. While the Scenic Route’s London start is an exception, likely requiring ~60% of the total race time to complete at the optimal speed, you can double the leader’s time in most races and still finish. Don’t take unnecessary risks if you aren’t actively seeking a strong placement.

That’s all the advice I have for you today- please feel free to have a look through the rest of the blog for further information!

Best Wishes,

Reuben Goodchild