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.