Friends visit all subway stations

New York: New York City's massive subway system has 468 stations. On Friday, six former high school classmates said they broke the record for stopping at them all.

The group set out on Thursday to beat the fastest time - 26 hours, 21 minutes - for riding through the entire subway system and making every stop. That record was set in 1989.

According to their website, www.rapidtransitchallenge.com, the six friends finished in 24 hours, 54 minutes and 3 seconds, shaving about an hour and a half off the previous record.

The group had made it to 198 stations by about 3.40am local time on Friday and finished off the rest by about 4.30pm, the site said. Photos posted on the site showed the sleepy bunch catching naps on the trains.

"We know we'll be arriving at 241st Street as World Record holders (or at least we will be after Guinness verifies our record breakers package to Guinness)," the riders wrote as they headed toward their final stops.

The odyssey started at around 3.30pm on Thursday on an S train at the Rockaway Park station in Queens. The marathon riders came prepared with chocolate, energy bars, bottled water, socks, toothpaste and a complex itinerary involving 70 transfers.

"Why am I doing it? I'm still asking myself that now," said Brian Brockmeyer, 28, a financial analyst in Jersey City, New Jersey.