At some point during the summer of 2014, we imagine this happened: A pair of friends in England were just hanging out, when one of them speculated that he could run faster than the subway moves. After a quick protest, he clarifies: He wagers he could get off the subway at one stop and run through the streets and meet it at its next destination. Concept in place, the race was on. That’s the best backstory we can come up with for the video above, which features an epic race between man and machine.
Resurfacing today as a GIF on Reddit, the events depicted in the video took place on July 12, 2014 at 11:53 a.m. in Blackfriars, London. Between the Mansion House and Cannon Street stops of London’s tube (their subway system), there are about 35 yards of street along with 75 steps of stairs and two turnstiles all in the runner’s way. The split-screen video shows the perspective of a filmer on the train and of a small camera strapped to the runner’s head.As soon as the doors open at the Mansion House stop, the runner is off, navigating his way around other subway passengers, stairs, and the busy London streets. As the train arrives at the Cannon Street station and the doors open, the runner is just making his way down the final set of stairs and manages to make it into the train just before it starts moving again.
This video gives us a tremendous appreciation of the world’s subway and train systems. Sure, their times from stop to stop were just about the same, but the cameraman in the subway sure was a lot less exhausted than his sprinting counterpart.
Featured image: Epic Challenges
