The Great North(ern Line) Run – LWAT is 2! And 200!

This Toddler blog is 2 today

It was 2 this morning

And so we sing, and do silly things

Like race down the Northern Line

(to the tune of “Little Bo Peep”, aka “The Ethelred Birthday Song”)

It is time, LWAT is 2 years old today, and 200 posts old. It’s quite a moment. And in case you missed it, we are running a Northern Line Race down the Charing Cross and Bank branches, but overground. The rules are here.

Basically, we divided into 2 teams of 2 . Team A was Kate+Eva, going down the Charing Cross branch. Team B was Nathan+Reuben, going down the Bank branch. There were a few last minute changes, like swapping the children over and scrapping the buggy…but those are mere details

Here’s what happened along the way:

(Just for fun, the stations are clickable,  so you can read our previous adventures in the area as we go along)

9:40AM and we’re in the Friends House cafe, opposite Euston station. We got there too early for the Wellcome Collection to be open, so went with a plan B. Happily, it turned out to have lots of space and toys and books for the kids:

We had croissants, juice and coffee and I took a photo of Nathan that I’m not allowed to share here. A coin was tossed, teams decided and we were ready to go..

Oh wait, we weren’t. Reuben had put together an alphabet jigsaw puzzle and needed to sing his way through it before getting ready. And then I got into a conversation with someone who’d made their own sling when their kids were little and now she uses it for her grandkids. And then…

We were off! It was…

10:43ish GO!

10:48 Team A (that’s me and Eva) reach our first station, Warren St:

Stopping only to explain to a couple of confused tourists the difference between the Wellcome Collection and the Wellcome Trust, and why battering on the doors of the closed office building wouldn’t get them very far.

A few short minutes’ walk and we hit….

10:54 Goodge St

At this point, Team B were still waiting for the 205 at Euston, so we were comprehensively kicking their asses. Time for our handicap – a stop at Paperchase to buy a birthday card for Reuben’s Auntie Sabbage. And could there be a more appropriate card than this?!:

It’s so perfect I wanted to cry. Meanwhile Team B had reached their first station:

10:58 King’s Cross

It was, comprehensively, ON! A few minutes later we had finished our power walk to a pile of crap Tottenham Court Rd, which is a check in at:

11:03 TCRRRRRRRRR!

At the same time as Team B were at:

11:04 Angel

Meanwhile, Eva and I had negotiated our sweaty way around the back of Centre Point to jump on a no 29, resulting in our next check-in:

11:10 Leicester Square

Which was our 4th station out of 8, while Team B reached 3 out of 9 a minute or two later:

11:12 Old St

So, to re-iterate, we were clearly ahead. And checking in at our next stop a few minutes later *may* have led to cockiness:

11:15 Charing Cross

So, I decided to stop for a refreshing fruit cooler at Costa – it was pretty sweaty work carrying that baby and changing bag around!

While we were choosing our blend, Team B had jumped off the 205 and checked in at their next station:

11:18 Moorgate

But we didn’t pause for long, honest, and took a quick photo of the actual Charing Cross before checking in at:

11:26 Embankment

At which point, CrapBerry had died so I had no idea that Team B had reached:

11:26 Bank

at exactly the same time. After some confusion about whether Liverpool St was on the Northern Line (it isn’t, and if Nathan says I said it was, he’s misquoting me) they found a 133 bus stop and had an apple:

Then, eventually they hopped on a 133 and were off again…

And this is where it all went wrong for me. Mellowed out by my icy fruit drink, I dawdled across the Golden Jubilee Bridge, taking this lovely panorama on the way:

Then I stopped at the Royal Festival Hall for a pee (icy fruit drink’s fault again) and to call in at the poetry library to see whether I could get online and update the Fbook event. I was a bit overly concerned about what the Fbook attendees were thinking and forgot about the winning the race bit.

Meanwhile, Team B were knocking those stations down like skittles on the 133, taking in the following:

11:40 London Bridge

11:42 Borough

11:46 Elephant & Castle

By which point, I had finished faffing around with toilet breaks and internet and was running at breakneck speed towards the bus stop at Waterloo (possibly I would have broken Eva’s neck if I had jiggled her about much more…), and very narrowly missed the 59, resulting in a grumpy check-in at

11:46 Waterloo

We waited 5 minutes for the bus, but I think you can guess what was happening on Team B….

11:50 Kennington

Yes, the boys won. We were on a slow-moving 59 to Kennington Park, then dashed down the road to the tube to find them smugly standing there.

It was …12:05

A clear victory for Team B and a lesson to me about thinking I have all the time in the world. I actually wanted to let them catch up a bit, to stop Reuben getting too upset at losing, but we can safely say that one backfired. Congratulations to Reuben and Nathan and Happy Birthday LWAT!!