Did They Make It????

I am confident that most of you loyal and faithful readers are waiting with baited breath to learn if the two young men written about in the last posting were successful in their quest to break the Guinness world record for the speediest time traveling around the entire subway system in New York City.

Yes, they did it in record time - 22 hours and 51 minutes. Awesome!!

This is an excerpt for the news article in today’s Daily News --
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Chris Solarz (center) and Matt Ferrisi get signature from witness Bertie Williams yesterday on the friends’ arrival at Carnarsie-Rockaway Parkway station in Brooklyn, the last stop on their record-breaking subway marathon.

WE RAIL-Y BROKE RECORD - Pals first to ride whole subway system in a day.

“They were not to be derailed. After 22 hours and 51 minutes, 468 train stations, 25 subway lines and a single potty break, two Manhattan marathon runners yesterday hit the finish line of another endurance test, spanning the entire city subway system in record time.

‘I’m gonna go to the bathroom,’ Chris Solarz quipped, as he and Matt Ferrisi reached the end of the L line - and their underground odyssey - at the Canarsie/Rockaway station in Brooklyn.

The longtime friends, who work at a Manhattan Investment firm, bested the previous mark of 24 hours and 54 minutes, but now wait to be certified as Guinness world record holders.

The two had trained early for the four-borough ride by mapping out potential routes and putting in four weeks of trial runs. But as any straphanger can attest, the MTA isn’t always going your way.

Among the holdups, they said, were a suspicious package at Union Square and a long 2a.m. delay on the G line at the Long Island City Court Square station.

‘We went from having perfectly synchronized the trains to missing every one.’ said Ferrisi, 28

Under Guinness rules, the two pals were required to stick to local trains and stop at every station in the system. Solarz snapped a picture at each stop, while Ferrisi had witnesses sign a document stating they had arrived.

And, they were not unfamiliar to some of the subway riders they encountered along their journey. ‘Everyone knew us on the train. We’re like local heroes now. Everyone thought we were crazy, but we made it,’ Solarz, 30, said, crediting three cups of coffee for keeping him awake.

The new subway kings weren’t about to share their formula for crisscrossing the subway system in record time. ‘The route is like our secret sauce,’ Solarz said. ‘We're keeping it to ourselves.’”
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I am really proud of these guys and a bit freaked-out to know that my name will be somewhere in the archives of The Guinness Book of World Records.

Much more to report about later.

Go Gators!!

Billi Pod
wanjr@aol.com