The “king of the coasters” stepped onto the boarding platform of the Cyclone roller coaster in Coney Island on Thursday, and seemed almost drawn to Seat 6.

“It all started right here,” Richard Rodriguez said.

Forty summers ago, when he was a tan teenager, Mr. Rodriguez slipped into Seat 6 and rode the venerable wooden roller coaster continuously — day and night — for more than four days, pausing only for bathroom breaks.

The 104-hour feat consisting of nearly 2,400 trips was recognized by the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the longest marathon coaster ride — a crazy footnote in New York’s summer of ’77, a season marked by the Son of Sam killings, an electricity blackout, the burning Bronx and glamorous nights at Studio 54.

The publicity sparked an unparalleled career of endurance-riding on roller coasters. Mr. Rodriguez was flown around the world as a promotion for amusement parks, and attained ever-longer records. His 2007 jaunt of 405 hours and 40 minutes on two coasters at Pleasure Beach in Blackpool, England, still stands as the Guinness record for longest marathon on a roller coaster.