WASHINGTON — A 16-year-old high school student is in the record books after they performed a "speed run" of all 97 Metro stations in D.C.'s transit system. Claire Aguayo captured their whole journey on a video for their YouTube channel. It's already got dozens of comments wishing congratulations and saying others are also going to attempt the feat.
The record means a Metro rider needs to visit all 97 stations in the shortest amount of time.
"There are many different ways that you can do it, so it kind of depends on your planning, the routings that you choose. You have to optimize for what's going to give you the fastest time," Aguayo said.
As far as the planning goes, Aguayo said they have been planning how to make their speed run for quite awhile, but the day it happened was just a day off from school.
"I woke up not really knowing what I was going to do that day. I kind of just decided that I was going to do it," they said.
They knew they wanted to start from the farthest point, to minimize backtracking.
They started in Ashburn and set the record with a time of 8 hours and 36 minutes, which is 18 minutes faster than the previous record set by Lucas Wall, who set the record right after the Silver Line extension opened.
Even so, Aguayo thinks they got a little unlucky along the way.
"I think with a good bit of polishing, my time could have been a lot faster," they said. "I don't know if I'll be trying it again sometime really soon, but I do think I'll be trying it again whenever Potomac Yard opens, since that will add a new station, it will reset the record, it'll invite some new competition."
While they may not be eager to speed through D.C.'s Metro system again, they do have their eyes on other transit system speed records around the country and the world.
"I was just planning with my friend a run of all the subways and trolleys in Philadelphia," they said. They're also wearing a sweatshirt with the map of Montreal's Meto system. "It's another cool one that I'd like to do. Maybe someday I could do a really huge one like New York or Paris, but those take a lot of planning."
Aguayo said they have always had a love for public transportation in general. They said they were inspired to break the record by gamers on YouTube.
"If you watch video game YouTube, there are a lot of people who do speed runs to finish the video game as fast as they can. I thought hey, what if you did a speed run in real life?"
Unfortunately, the record is not technically a world record, since a representative from the Guinness Book wasn't following along during the run. Aguayo said they are not worried about the official accolades.
They hope their video will spotlight D.C.'s transit system in general.
"I think there's a lot of teenagers and other young people who are really interested in not only the way the world works, but how things could get better, and the value of things like public transportation in our lives, in our cities, and just how important they are. And how lucky we are to have something like the Metro here," Aguayo said.