While the rain may have been a pain in the neck for some people Wednesday, others spent the afternoon getting the pain massaged away.
About 240 people gathered at University House apartments on Northwest 13th Street to break the world record for the longest massage chain — nearly 200 people short of the current record of 430.
In order to comply with the Guinness World Records standards, participants had to form a single-file line and give and receive a three-minute massage.
Although it was drizzling and new arrivals were slowly trickling in, participants were enticed to continue waiting by scantily clad Hooters waitresses with prizes and giveaways. Students and employees of the Florida School of Massage also set up chairs and gave back and neck massages.
After about an hour, despite frantic mass text messaging attempts, the organizers realized they would not be able to muster up enough people to break the record.
“I’m a little disappointed we didn’t break the record, but I’m still going to get a massage,” said Jessica Castillo, a UF senior.
The herd of participants was steered into the apartment complex courtyard for the after party. Employees from Kiss 105.3 FM blasted music as the remaining rain-soaked crowd climbed a rock wall and waited in line for free massages.
The event was used to promote the student-apartment community to UF and Sante Fe College students, said Rachel Kihn, vice president of marketing for Inland American Communities Group, Inc., the parent company of University House.
“We just turned it into a party in the rain instead of the world record,” Kihn said. “We’re a little disappointed we didn’t make it, but we’re excited everybody came out.”
Steven Goonen, a University House employee, said the team tried to think of a creative way to market the apartments.
“We started researching records that would be possible to beat,” Goonen said. “It was between this and the world’s largest Jello fight.”
The organizers of the event originally expected more than 500 people to attend.
“We wanted to do it on a day when there were no classes, but I think because everybody treated it as a holiday a lot of people went out last night, and that probably hurt us a little bit,” Kihn said.
