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British Airways Athletics Club: Streets AtoZ Event Instructions

This is a fun competitive event that can be run or walked at any time during the period specified.

The objective is for each participant to collect a set of letters as a sequence through the alphabet - the winners being judged on the number of letters collected and the time or distance covered.

You need to start and finish at either an entrance to your property or place of work OR the nearest street-sign to that entrance (but note that this doesn't have to be one of your scoring signs). The objective is to collect as many different street-sign initial letters as you can in the shortest time or distance BUT each successive letter must be further down the alphabet. 

Hint: Roads usually have their street-sign at the two ends of the road or where the road crosses a bigger road. It can be difficult, or impossible, to find a street-sign for some bigger roads! The preparation time for this event can also be used to check on Street-View where street-signs are located (but note, as in this photo, that the street furniture may have moved or been removed since the street-car visited!)

The letters are to be collected during a single exercise activity. The duration of the activity and/or the distance covered should be recorded and submitted with the letters collected. There is no limit but the shorter the better for your result. Letters are collected by visiting the street name signs of local streets - the council maintained signs that identify streets, avenues, roads, paths even in some cases roundabouts but not places (such as "Welcome to Hillingdon") nor commercial signs, building names, school signs, church identifiers etc.. Bus stops that are named with a particular street are also permitted signs.

Participants should get close enough to the street-sign to be able to take a photograph of it without the benefit of zoom. I'm not encouraging zigzagging across busy streets so photographs can be taken from the opposite side of the street. Photographs do not have to be submitted. If you are not taking photographs then you should tap each sign instead. A GPS trail should be submitted with your entry or a list of the streets in the order they were visited plus confirmation of when you got back to your starting position and the distance covered. 

In addition to street-signs you are also allowed to score a zebra crossing as a "Z" and other light controlled pedestrian crossings as an "X". To count as an "X" the crossing has to have, or be at, traffic lights and must have a button to press (even if this has no real effect on the sequencing of the lights). No other substitutions are permitted.

You do not have to start with "A", nor with the letter of the street you start in. You can start with any letter and precede through the alphabet skipping letters as you wish. You need to include at least five letters. You do not have to finish with "Z". There are no letters beyond "Z" (e.g. the alphabet doesn't repeat). So an example set of length five could be:

• Abbey Road,
• Penny Lane,
• The Long-And-Winding Road,
• Strawberry Fields,
• A Zebra crossing - conveniently located near the start.

So, just to confirm, you have until the closing date to do your activity and accumulate a set of letters. Email your entry to the organiser including your activity type (run or walk), the distance covered, the time taken, the GPS map and/or the list of streets claimed.  Towards the end of the period participants are encouraged to post photographs, GPS trace of their route and comments on the letters collected on Facebook. But it is considered unsporting to post a good result early in the event period.

Once all of the results have been verified winners can be announced.

Any questions? Contact the organiser: Roderick Hoffman

Letter Distribution (for interest only)

The chart shows the number of streets in London starting with each letter of the alphabet. This has been estimated from the street index of a copy of the London AtoZ.

Letters marked "*" and "**" are considered rare.