Race Across London (Mark's 30th)

So Yesterday Rebecca and I took the coach up to London to compete in Mark's Birthday spectacular: A Race Across the World event all within London. Rebecca and I made up one of four teams that all met up in a location near Paddington at 11am, from there, there were four taxis awaiting ready to whisk each team to a different corner just outside the M25. The objective... Return to a pub as fast as humanly possible while doing a few light challenges along the way. 

Despite our phones needing to be on Airplane mode for the duration of the challenge, I thought it was going to be a cakewalk... Then our taxi took us into the countryside, and then a few more miles away for good measure. We really were in the middle of nowhere (turned out to be Horton Kirby, which is quite nice this time of year), but at least we got dropped off near a pub. Best ask the locals for directions. I anxiously approached the bar, afraid of being mocked or being told we really were stranded. As I asked where the nearest train station was an old boy halfway through a Guinness rose from his chair - he was put on this Earth to give us these directions. So we cut through a meadow, passed a cricket game and ambled along a main road, before we knew it we were already back on a train to Victoria!

Back in central London the challenges begin. To avoid some time penalties we had to get photos of us eating a food beginning with the first letter of our names. I got tortilla chips while Rebecca splashes out on a red velvet cake. We gobbled them down on a bus, as another challenge was to get photos of us using 4 different modes of transport (we ended up doing train, tube, bus and a Boris Bike... kinda). The bus took us towards Buckingham Palace where we figured we could fulfill our final task: best photo with a London Landmark. The palace was too far way to justify, but Wellington Arch, plus some tourist happy enough to take our photo did the job.

The cheesiness made it a winner. After that we hightailed it to the finish line. All the while Rebecca and I was self assured of our win. Our trip was lean, not an ounce of dilly dallying was permitted. So imagine how crestfallen we were to discover we'd come 3rd! The Birthday boy himself had done EVERYTHING before we had even landed back into Central London. We were well and truly beaten, but we nursed our pride back to with pints, pizza, pool and cocktails long into the night, each of us regaling our races across London. Mark did a spot of lucky hitch-hiking, his Mum's team caught a peddalo and Dan's taxi dropped him off a 10 minute walk away from his home near Croydon. 

I slept the whole way back home on the couch, totally pooped from all the racing around. But we celebrated Mark's big day in style. Every single tourist and taxi driver was envious of our game 'That sounds like such amazing fun' they each said - and it sure was.