Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Roller Coasters

It's been a roller coaster of emotions deciding what to do about my upcoming race.  Full marathon or half marathon?  I just couldn't decide.  After sitting down to weigh the pros and cons, it became clear that I had to downgrade to the half marathon.  Even if I could push myself without injury, I was still looking at a brutal training schedule and would not have enjoyed the experience.  In the end, there is no need to risk injury or take the fun out of running just to complete a marathon right now.  I am young and know that I will run a marathon when the timing is right.  Thank you to all of my readers who helped me reach this decision.

Now that I have made the official switch, I am thrilled to announce that I will be running my third half marathon this October.  I'm picking up new shoes this week and am looking forward to starting my new and improved training schedule.  I have a full 7 weeks to finish building my miles, which shouldn't be hard with my new shoes.  For each race, I always try to set a personal challenge for myself.  My goal for my previous two half marathons was just to finish, which I did.  This time though, I'm going for speed.  My goal is to PR so that I can say that I ran a half marathon in under 2:45.  I know that I can do it.  So here's to my fastest half marathon time yet!

In addition to my roller coaster of emotions, I hit up some real life coasters yesterday.  Scott and I decided to take a day for ourselves and headed up to Cedar Point.  We could not have asked for a better day.  The weather was gorgeous: 80 degrees, lots of sunshine, and a nice breeze from Lake Erie. 


I haven't visited Cedar Point since I was a teenager so the park felt so new to me.  There were so many coasters that either weren't there the last time I visited or had too long of a line to bother with that I felt a little overwhelmed.  I'm a roller coaster fanatic so we needed a plan of attack if we were going to ride all the new stuff.  Luckily, the park wasn't very busy so the lines were short for many of the rides.  We even got to ride to best two coasters in the park twice:  Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster.

The biggest adventure of the day was riding the Top Thrill Dragster.  According to Cedar Point, the ride goes from 0-120 MPH in only 4 seconds and shoots you 420 feet in the air and right back down.  The whole ride lasts only 17 second but it was amazing.  I cannot even begin to describe the rush that I felt on this coaster as well as after the ride when I stood under it and realized just how tall it is.  If you visit Cedar Point, this ride is definitely worth waiting in line for.


Has anyone else set a goal to PR at a specific race during training or did your PR just come as a pleasant surprise?

What's your favorite amusement park?  Any other roller coaster fans out there? 

Heather

4 comments:

  1. Good decision! Have fun running the half! They can be just as challenging!

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  2. When I was a student at OSU, I was able to visit Cedar Point thanks to the awesome student ticket prices =) The park was pretty, especially with it being on the lake. It seemed like it was an amusement park for the sake of, well, amusement. Growing up in Florida, I'm use to the "theme' parks where everything is cheesy and follows some stupid motif.

    I'm definitely a roller coaster gal, but ferris wheels terrify the eeby-jeebies out of me!

    Glad to hear you are at peace with your marathon decision. You should check out the FIRST plan in Run Less, Run Faster if you don't already have a plan in mind. It's a really great book/program for getting faster.

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  3. Sounds like you made a great 1/2 marathon decision. You will never regret taking time to 1. enjoy running and 2. take care of your body!! Good luck in your race!
    I don't like roller coasters, but I always force myself to go on them just to prove to myself that I'm not chicken. I really AM a chicken, but at least I can fake being brave. :)

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  4. It sounds like you made the right decision for you. Roller coasters are so much fun. Glad you guys had a great time at Cedar Point!

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