Fredericton curlers ride 'highs and lows' as they go end-to-end, and so on, for world record

FREDERICTON -

They haven't left the rink since Monday.

"At this point, we're 97 hours and change in," Chris Schnare said Friday morning. "There have been many, many highs and a couple of lows, you know, especially in the middle of the night when it's cold and very quiet in here, somebody brings up someone else and eventually the group's back up, you just ride it like mountains it comes in highs and lows."

But the end is nearly in sight.

"It's been unbelievable, we did this as just a group of 10 people at the start and it's just exploded," said Stephen Muzzerall.

The curlers are on pace to beat the 105-hour record Friday evening and hit their goal of 120 hours Saturday morning.

The Guinness World Record hopefuls had lots of support to uplift them throughout the week.

"It's unbelievable really, all the schools, FHS in Fredericton, every homeroom class did a poster for us. That stuff is just amazing. It really kind of hits you in the heart, and it tells you you're doing the right thing," said Steven Burns.

The team's curling to support youth mental health services and they're over the $100,000 mark.

"Fundraising is actually exceeding our hopes and dreams for this," Schnare said. "The amount of support that's come, not just locally, but provincially and nationally from the corporate level from the international scene, is amazing."

They set a goal of $120,000 to raise.

"Fundraising is going really, really well. We're still trying to hit it; our goal is $120,000. I'm hoping we're going to blow that out of the water, but we're still working hard at it," Burns said.

With just two-hour breaks for sleep for every eight hours, it has been a long five days.

"When I look at that clock over there and I see it's like seven hours left to break that record, it puts it all into perspective. We've still got a ways to go yet, but when you can see the end, it certainly makes it easier," Burns said.

Their 120 hours should end around 9 a.m. Saturday morning, and the first thing they'll do to celebrate -- is sleep.