Recently, after browsing through a Web site popular to many students who find themselves bored during a lecture, two University alums accomplished a feat, all thanks to Wikipedia.
In August, Matt Green and Donald Badaczewski, both 24, broke the world record for riding every subway line in New York City in the shortest time. The duo broke the previous record with a time of 24 hours and two minutes. Michael Falsetta and Salvatore Babones previously held the record with a time of 25 hours and 11 minutes in 1998.
Badaczweski said the idea came to him at home one night five months ago while surfing the web and studying law at the University of Michigan.
"I read the Wikipedia a lot, and one day, I was reading this [story] about people riding the subway," Badaczeweski said. "I thought this was purportedly stupid. I called Matt, and he thought it was stupid and idiotic and immediately agreed" to do it.
Green admitted he was skeptical at first about the idea.
"Don said we should do this, and I was half thinking it was a joke and half thinking it was a good idea," Green said. "It's the kind of thing that sounds kind of a cool, but do you really want to do that? I thought it was a terrible idea, but one that needed to be taken up anyway."
Once both Green and Badaczewski agreed to try and break the record, they started drafting routes of the New York subway system and devising methods of making transfer stops faster and easier.
"You want to transfer trains as little as possible," Green said. "You want to double up as little track as possible, since there are certain parts of the subway of that you have to cover twice."
Green also said that when he and Badaczewski decided to make the transfer stops was a crucial factor for saving time.
"You have to consider when the transfers are, because the transfers late at night could mean waiting longer for a train to come," he said. "We had to do a fair amount [of transferring] through the entire day. If we had some really concentrated stops, we do a few at night."
In addition, Green admitted that, while he and Badaczewski spent almost six weeks of concentrated study on the subway maps, they did not really devise a set route to take.
"There were a lot of ways to evaluate which route was best," he said. "There's no criteria which says that [one route] is the best. There are a lot of different factors to take into account."
Former record-holder Falsetta, however, said he was impressed with Green and Badaczewski's plan, claiming that he and Babones almost "winged" their plan.
"We plotted out [a route] about a week before," Falsetta said. "We figured out the principles where we wanted to make a stop and what kind of segments we wanted. We came out with a crude plan that could be altered."
This "crude plan" did lead to some unexpected delays, Falsetta said, including some late-night track work and a 10-minute bathroom break. Badaczewski said he and Green almost ran into a problem with an "inoperable train." A quick call to the Metro Transit Authority's emergency hotline, however, assuaged their fears.
Green and Badaczewski started their journey at 6:04 a.m. Aug. 23 in Rockaway Boulevard, Queens on the A Train and finished in Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx at 6:06 a.m. Aug. 24. Despite some distances between subway stops, Green said he and Badaczewski did not sleep and experienced some "hallucinating" moments.
"For the most part, we were too wound up to sleep," Green said. "A lot of times, that late, we were the only people in the car, so we resorted to running up and down in the car trying to keep ourselves awake. Going into it, [we thought] particularly late at night we would meet some pretty weird people. As we were going along, we realized we were the weird people. After 18 hours on the train, our behavior got pretty weird. I think people were wondering what was wrong with us."
But some passengers had heard of the record-breaking attempt thanks to Green sending out a press release about the event to "every newspaper and e-mail address" he could find. Throughout the journey, local Manhattan newspapers and T.V. stations followed Green and Badaczewski's progress. In addition, passengers provided accolades.
"It was very cool to be recognized," Badaczewski said. "People were like, 'we're pulling for you!' But I was thinking, 'Why are you pulling for us for doing something so stupid?' I'm sure some people thought we were morons."
While Falsetta said he and Babones did not have as much press as Green and Badaczewski did, he did say both parties shared one thing in common regarding their significant others' opinions on the idea.
Babones said his and Falsetta's "girlfriends would not even meet us to give us a sandwich" during the attempt.
Green said he and Badaczewski faired a bit better with their girlfriends, who mostly offered "moral support" throughout the planning process.
Green also said he hopes others will try to break the subway record.
"We wanted to motivate all of the other friendless nerds out there," Green said. "That two losers in their 20s could do this, then so could they."
Falsetta, however, said he is skeptical if the record could ever be broken again by such a "wide margin."
"You may be able to shave off five minutes, but I don't think [the record] can go before 24 hours, really, because of the natural limitations of the [subway] system," he said.
Despite the long time spent on the train, the diet of beef jerky and water and the lack of bathroom breaks, Green said the trip was a great experience.
"Once you enter the subway, you can't leave the subway" without paying for another ride, Green said. "We bought a single swipe Metro Card and we stayed in the subway the entire time. We kind of looked at it as the most expensive two-dollar tour of New York."
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