Clinton Shepherd rode a Ferris wheel for 48 hours straight.

Image: Marco Verch, Flickr (license)

Don’t try this at your local theme park, kids. At least, not without parental supervision.

In the spring of 2013, Chicago’s Navy Pier Park Operations Manager Clinton Shepherd threw his hat in the ring for the longest marathon on a fairground or theme park attraction. Of the pier’s various attractions, including the Pepsi Wave Swinger, Carousel, and Light Tower, Shepherd opted for the Centennial Wheel, a Ferris wheel that tops out at 200 feet above the pier. He needed to stay on the ride to break the existing record of 30 hours 45 seconds, but set a personal goal for himself of reaching a 48-hour total to make the next competitor’s job that much harder.

Shepherd pulled it off, hanging out in the HGTV-outfitted pod for over two days before the official time was set down in the Guinness Book of World Records. And, if you’re wondering just how feasible it would be to remain in a Ferris wheel gondola for days at a time, Shepherd’s ride was surprisingly comfortable: the gondola itself was furnished with a table, curtains, cushions, and a flatscreen TV. He even had meals brought to him while the clock inched toward the final mark of 48 hours, eight minutes, and 25 seconds.

Acrophobics might recognize Shepherd’s accomplishment as truly inspirational, but it only lasted one year before 28-year-old Sam Clauw broke it in 2014. Clauw, a promoter for Belgium’s Bellewaerde Park, stayed on the swinging Pirate Boat for 50 hours to set a new all-time record in the name of animal conservation.

A Walt Disney World guest took a record 3,500 spins on Snow White’s Scary Adventures.

Image: Michael Gray, Flickr (license)

This story isn’t crazy at all -- it’s very, very sweet. In 2002, Sara and Ron Miles took their eight-year-old son, Benjamin, to Walt Disney World for the first time and saw how much the atmosphere, attractions, and characters helped him open up. Ben had been diagnosed with autism as a young child and was suddenly talking and interacting on a level that he had previously appeared unable to reach. He soon became fixated on Snow White’s Scary Adventures, and returned to ride it again and again… and again, and again for the next ten years.

When the Magic Kingdom attraction finally shuttered in 2012 to make way for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, part of the park’s newly-expanded Fantasyland, Ben was the last one to ride Snow White’s Scary Adventures. In fact, he cycled through the ride 49 times on the last night it was open to the public, and was permitted to stay after-hours to bring his total ride count to an even 3,500 times. It’s a record that’s unlikely to be beaten by even the most die-hard fans in the years to come, and one that holds a special significance that simply couldn’t be outdone by any routine record-breaking endeavor.