Besides running, aerobics, and weight training, he rode his hometown roller coaster, Coney Island s Cyclone, to warm up for his marathon on another wooden mammoth, the Big Dipper. I do it for the thrill of it. It s really an adventure to me. Especially overnight, it gets lonely with the park closed. The Guinness Book criteria states that the marathon rider racks up five minutes per every hour on the ride.
Riders can accumulate up to eight hours worth of breaks to take baths, eat, etc.
Rodriguez says that the first day on the ride is the toughest and that he prefers to sit where there s the most balance often the fifth or sixth car from the front. This attempt for a world record won t be as easy as his previous tries because Rodriguez faces stiff competition from across the Atlantic. On June 20, a Canadian named Norman St. Pierre started riding Le Monstre in La Ronde Park in Montreal in an attempt to break Rodriguez s record. The endeavor will be captured on film, since Rodriguez has been chronicling his roller coaster adventures and hopes to make a film about his career of ups and downs. Rodriguez can be interviewed while riding the roller coaster via his cell phone.