SLOW Teams Win 16 of 48 Postcodes in Nike Grid game

 
The two SLOW teams, Team SLOW and More Team SLOW (MTS), finished the two-week-long Nike Grid challenge yesterday, securing the team crowns for 16 of the 48 postcodes being contested in London:




 

Points were accumulating by running between two of four specially marked phoneboxes in each postcode, the phoneboxes acting as timers for the runs. The final person to start (and finish) in each postcode won an “eclipse” prize, while certain phoneboxes were designated as “lunar” at a certain point in the competition, the first person running from such a phonebox winning a lunar prize.

Team SLOW were also the first team to gain the Team 10 and Team 15 “badges” for having 10 and 15 members of the team running in a single postcode, and Team SLOW was the first team to gain complete coverage with all 48 postcodes being run in by at least one team member. The maps below show the postcodes won by Team SLOW and MTS respectively:


 

One of the key battles on the final day, as each postcode gradually “shut down”, was the battle for the team crown for SE16 (Rotherhithe) between MTS and Team Audiofuel. Going into the day, Team Audiofuel was holding the postcode, but their lead was small. Christine, MTS team captain, who ran over 110 miles during the two-week competition, said:

“We had great fun contesting SE16 yesterday and the Audiofuel guys were really nice. Our orienteering skills came in handy out there as we knew from the timings that they hadn’t found the route straight through Rotherhithe and were going all the way round the edge! When Sean and Tom arrived they tried to follow Rachael but she diverted through a housing estate and got them lost! They did eventually work it out but gave up when our reinforcements started arriving.”

More on Christine’s racing can be read in this article.

Evan Barlow of Team SLOW, and one of the highest scorers in the game, said:

“This has been an amazing two weeks. Can’t imagine anything else like it.”

Individual members of the teams also did well, securing many individual “player” crowns and winning a large number of prizes:

Player Crowns
Jake Condor*

Phil Marsland

Phil Marsland

Bryn Monnery

Dan Findlay Robinson

Dan Findlay Robinson
Player Crowns
Vince Roper

Evan Barlow

Mike Garvin

Rawlston Morian**

Akeel Kazmi**
Lunar Prizes
Ollie

Vince Roper

James Beattie

Evan Barlow

Mike Garvin
Eclipse Prizes
Bryn Monnery

Vince Roper

Jayne Sales

Chris Robinson

Phil Marsland

Christine Smith
 
 
 
Stealth Prizes
Concert Tickets
 
Ollie
Concert Tickets
 
Vince Roper
Rugby Shirt
 
Nicola Morris
Endurance 48 Postcodes
Ed Catmur

Vince Roper

Verity Vale

Helle Norgaard
Endurance 24 Postcodes
Ollie

Phil Marsland

Jayne Sales

Nicola Morris
Endurance 12 Postcodes
Rachael Holmes

Neill Wates**

Tim Smith

Christine Smith

Dan Findlay Robinson

James Beattie
Endurance 12 Postcodes
Evan Barlow

Rachel Babbs

Carys Morgan

Mike Garvin

Paul Nixon

Ed Catmur was notable as the first person in the entire game to run in all 48 postcodes, while Verity Vale was the first woman to do so. Another notable individual achievement was Dan Findlay Robinson’s eleven-hour epic run, the bulk of which was spent shuttling between two phoneboxes in E1 to secure that postcode early in the game.

Lunar, Eclipse and probably Player Crown winners all win £100 running shoes, representing a prize haul of over £2000 for the club!

* Pseudonym.
** Non-SLOW members but part of More Team SLOW during the competition.
Top: Phil. Above: Photo of the final-day clash in SE16 between More Team SLOW and Team Audiofuel. Below: Mike.