TWO joggers are on a quest to run the length every Underground line in London by the end of the year. They have now set their sights tomorrow (Sunday) on the iconic’ Northern Line, their fifth Underground challenge
TWO joggers are on a quest to run the length every Underground line in London by the end of the year.
Laura Tomlinson and Tim Moss, both 27, have already jogged through East London, having spent seven hours pacing the length of the Hammersmith & City Line after work, nipping out in the snow.
They even followed the East London Line under the Thames from Whitechapel to New Cross by darting through the Rotherhithe Tunnel nearby to get south of the river.
They are raising money for the British Lung Foundation after Laura lost her granddad to asbestosis last year.
They have now set their sights tomorrow (Sunday) on the iconic’ Northern Line, their fifth Underground challenge.
Wellwishers can follow their progress live through Twitter and donate through the Next Challenge website.
“It’s funny,” said trainee solicitor Laura. “Every time we tell someone about the Underground challenge, they always say the Northern Line is tough. So we thought we should get it out of the way.”
The pair, who have also run the Circle and Victoria lines, have to navigate through the streets with an A-to-Z.
The deep-level Northern mostly follows the line of the streets above on its 23-mile route, like the City Road and Pentonville Road, or north from Camden Town up to Hampstead and Highgate, or south from London Bridge right down to Morden in Surrey.
But the Northern doesn’t always follow logic, especially the twisty bit round Euston. So the A-Z is a must’ tomorrow.
That’s not the end of it, however, as Tim explains: “There are three big lines we’re building up to, the Central, District and Piccadilly.
“We prefer not to measure them so we can keep the surprise. But I’m pretty sure they’re each over 40 miles.”
They can look forward to the Central, for example, stretching from Epping through Stratford and East London to Liverpool Street, the City and West End, all the way out to West Ruislip in Middlesex. The District, just as daunting, starts at Upminster and burrows under Whitechapel and Westminster, out to Richmond and Wimbledon.
The duo so far have run past 74 stations, gone through 16 of the 33 London boroughs and covered 45 miles of track.
Prudent Tim Moss, who organises expeditions for a living, thinks of it as “an adventure that doesn’t require money, equipment or training.”
Except for the fsre, of course, to get home at the end of each exhausting run.
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