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Upper West Side classmates Hannah Bruner and Wilder McGraw, both 8, woke up one morning and decided to make history.
The two adventurers, along with Bruner’s mom and McGraw’s dad, embarked on a 9-hour, 21-mile mission, biking through the Upper West Side and Midtown West to take on an ambitious summer challenge: break the world record of visiting the most NYC playgrounds in a single day.
Together, the four visited 41 playgrounds last Friday, shattering the previous Guinness World Record of 26 stops.
“One day when me and my mom were sitting in the park, we visited like 5 playgrounds and we wondered what the world record for visiting playgrounds in a day was,” Bruner told The Post. “It was only 26, so we decided it was easy to beat.”
“The kids are getting older and we only have a little bit of playground time left with them,” Bruner’s mother, Jesenia Ruiz de la Torre, told The Post. “It almost felt like a way to say goodbye to the playground.”
Ruiz de la Torre made a list of playgrounds on the Upper West Side and Midtown West using Google Maps and mapped out a path, marking every green space she saw in order, using a zigzag method to ensure she didn’t miss any parks.
“We strategized about the order that would make the most sense in advance,” Ruiz de la Torre explained to The Post. “Then, on the day of, Wilder’s dad plugged the planned route into his GPS to make sure we took the most efficient route to each playground.”
The route hit a range of parks from massive playgrounds to tiny apartment-building extensions, starting at 8 a.m. sharp and finishing around 5 p.m.
“I’ve always wanted to break a world record,” eight-year-old McGraw told The Post, admitting that the biggest challenge for him was ignoring his rumbling stomach. “I had to persevere through not getting hungry and focus on the fun, especially when the parents would go down the mini slides.”
The group hustled to finish the challenge before Spain’s World Cup match later that day, so they stopped only twice for food: one lunch spot for chicken and fries and a bodega for snacks.
To make it official for Guinness World Records, the evidence has to be standardized and easily replicable, so the group used the same process as the 2019 record holders, taking timestamped photos and videos of themselves using a piece of playground equipment at every stop, before quickly moving on to the next one.
The group sent Guinness World Records their proof and is waiting to hear back for acceptance. Jordi Lippe-McGraw, Wilder’s mother, said she is proud of their accomplishment regardless.
“The beauty about living in NYC is we have access to so much right outside our door, and so much of that is green space,” Jordi McGraw told The Post and admitted that her son enjoys the Big Apple’s parks more than when the family lived in the suburbs.
“We are smushed between two incredible parks (Central Park and Riverside Park), despite being called the ‘concrete jungle.’”
New York City has over 2,000 playgrounds across the five boroughs, with over 200 in just Manhattan, managed by the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, the NYC Housing Authority (NYCHA), and local schools.
Which parks were the group’s favorite? Bruner preferred the River Run Playground on West 83rd because “it had so many slides and monkey bars,” while the other three noted Harbor View Park on West 55th, a brand new park with a large climbing structure, as a memorable one.
While the day wiped them out, the pride they felt was unmatched. Bruner and her mother ended the day with a sushi dinner and a 10-block walk home, which the two said was quite the challenge after their exhausting day.
“We are so proud of the kids for achieving their goal,” Ruiz de la Torre beamed. “The day was so fun and will definitely be one of the highlights of our summer.”
Below is their completed list of playgrounds, in order:
- River Run Playground — West 83rd St & Riverside Drive
- Hippo Playground — West 91st St & Riverside Drive
- Dinosaur Playground — West 97th St & Riverside Drive
- Tot Lot 105 – West 105th St & Riverside Drive
- Tot Lot 110 West 110th St & Riverside Drive
- Tot Lot 112 West 112th St & Riverside Drive
- Darlene & Julien Yoseloff Playground — CPW & West 110th St
- Anibal Aviles Playground — West 108th St
- Bloomingdale Playground Amsterdam Ave & West 104th St
- Frederick Douglass Playground — Amsterdam Ave & West 101st St
- Happy Warrior Playground — Amsterdam Ave & West 98th St
- The Wise Towers Playground – West 90th St
- Playground 89 – West 89th St
- Sol Bloom Playground – West 92nd St
- Rudin Family Playground — CPW between 96/97 St
- Tarr Family Playground — Central Park, Near West 100th St
- Wild West Playground — Central Park & West 94th St
- Safari Playground — Central Park & West 91st St
- Toll Family (Mariners) Playground — Central Park & West 84th St
- Diana Ross Playground — Central Park & West 81st St
- Tarr-Coyne Tots Playground — Central Park & West 68th St
- Adventure Playground — West 67th St & CPW
- Heckscher Playground — Central Park, Near West 62nd St
- Gertrude Ederle Playground — West 60th St
- Waterline Square Playground — West 59th St
- West End Park – West 63rd St
- Samuel N. Bennerson 2nd Playground – West 63rd St
- Matthew P. Sapolin Playground — West 70th St
- Tecumseh Playground – West 78th St
- Henry Neufeld (Elephant) Playground — West 76th St
- Little Engine Playground — Riverside Blvd & West 68th St
- Big River Playground – West 67th St
- Pier 97 Playground — West 57th St
- Harbor View – West 55th St
- Erie Canal Playground — West 52nd St
- Hell’s Kitchen Park — 47th St & 10th Ave
- Mathews-Palmer Playground — West 45th St
- McCaffrey Playground — West 43rd St
- Tom Otterness Playground — West 42nd St
- Classic Playground — West 73rd St
- St. Gregory’s Playground (Bonus)
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