Englishman Adham Fisher holds the world records for riding the entire Madrid, Amsterdam, Brussels and Toronto subway systems in the shortest possible time. In March 2011 he came to Chicago and set a new record, visiting all 143 'L' stations by train in 9:36:33. Since then a few other people (including myself) have lowered the time and Robert Bielaski and Ben Downey hold the current record of 9:08:56.

Adham is back in town trying to reclaim his CTA crown with record setting attempts on Thursday and Friday. But he's invited all the current and former record holders, as well as the general public, to join him in a friendly CTA riding race on Saturday. After a speech by CTA chief Forrest Claypool to mark the 100th anniversary of the Purple Line Linden station, we'll depart the station together but soon branch off on different lines, pursuing different strategies.

A few stations will be closed for repair this weekend, so the race is not a record-setting attempt, but it should give us a better idea who truly is the fastest subway rider in the Midwest. Afterwards we'll meet up at the Wise Fool Pub, 2270 N. Lincoln, around 9:30 pm to toast the victor.