Two seek record for riding entire New York subway
Posted on: Wednesday, 23 August 2006, 15:40 CDT
By Dan Wilchins
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's a test of endurance, but few would call it athletic.
Matt Green and Don Badaczewski, two friends from college, set out on Wednesday morning to break the record for traversing the entire New York subway system.
That's 468 stations and 660 miles, and the trip will likely take around 24 hours, or more.
"We really like the subway, and it's sort of a logic puzzle to figure out the best way to do this," Badaczewski said on Wednesday while riding the 7 train to Flushing, Queens.
Green, a 26-year old transportation engineer, and Badaczewski, a 24-year old law student, share a dry sense of humor, and complete each other's sentences. They both like beef jerky, and laid in a small supply to sustain themselves during the journey, along with a few bottles of water.
Which brings up an important issue -- the bathroom. The New York subway system has about 70 bathrooms for each gender, but the Metropolitan Transit Authority said they would reveal their locations only if the two made a request under the Freedom of Information Act, which can be a slow process.
"We're eating and drinking almost nothing, and we're willing to hold as long as we need," Green said.
As of midday, the two were about 11 minutes behind schedule.
Green and Badaczewski are looking to break a record set in 1998 by Mike Falsetta and Salvatore Babones, who traversed the system in 25 hours and 11 minutes.
The challengers are following the same rules: every station in the system must be passed by, but not every station must be stopped at.
Green and Badaczewski reckon they can do it in about 24 hours, but Falsetta is not so sure.
"If they beat us, it will be by 10 or 20 minutes. We did really well," Falsetta told Reuters.
If Green and Badaczewski do set a record, Falsetta promised to come out of retirement.
"We're 9 or 10 years older than these guys, but we can teach them a trick or two," he said.
Source: REUTERS
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