Roller Coaster Record Set: 3 Months

He's done it again, reports CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier: Chicago school teacher Richard Rodriguez has set a new world record — three months straight, twenty-four-hours a day — on a roller coaster.

"I'm an adventurer, I love roller coasters, I love a challenge, and this was a great challenge," the New York native said.

Rodriguez doubled his own thousand-hour record, to commemorate the Year 2000 — and raised a lot of money for charity in the process.

He climbed aboard the wooden 'coaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on June 9. He said he ate, slept and drank on it.

"[The] roller coaster goes round the clock. For it to be a world record, it has to be 24 hours a day, so it's going all night, and I get my five-minute breaks every hour," he said. "I build my breaks up, so in the morning I take a big break, and in the evening I take a break, but I'm always riding the roller coaster."

Rodriguez slept under a canvas tarp, and padded himself with foam to cushion the Big Dipper's jars and jolts.

"After the first few weeks, actually, I get the feel of the coaster and I sort of forget about it," the 39-year-old communications and media instructor said. "Then I'm just dealing with the weather, the elements, the wind and the rain. And I know it so well, so, I get used to it right away."

Rodriguez now owns 12 roller coaster world records. He set his first one at New York's famous Coney Island at age 19. This was his fifth record set at Blackpool.

So why does he do it? He says he's an adventurer, and he just loves roller coasters.

He completed his last three-minute lap on the ride to cheers from supporters and a jazz band playing Show Me The Way To Go Home at the damp and windswept seaside resort. He traveled 22,665 miles — the equivalent of taking the train to Australia and back.

Champagne in hand, Rodriguez says he's now looking forward to touring Britain...on foot.

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