Coaster Marathon Count...What’s your greatest Marathon?!

Hi everyone, only second post so first off, hello to all of you awesome coaster fanatics and bare with me....

I like many have loved roller coasters but had a long visit lapse to various parks when I got all adult and gp like....Late September 2019 I couldn’t get the standing joke at work (we’re right by Six Flags over Ga) of ‘hey, great job....u just won tickets to SFOG!’ Thing is, it’s always been a joke, but one Friday in September I couldn’t get it out of my head and went full coaster-bore and locked down my local SFOG park with everything on the annual membership/food/flash pass/etc right then and there.

since then, my ‘RCP’ (amazing roller coaster partner and GF) have been to magic mountain, six flags great america, CF California, kings island, and Dollywood, in three months. As a ‘native’ of SFOG, I do have the option to stop by after work, 37 years old and all, and ride my two favorite local coasters...twisted cyclone and Goliath.

Goliath is so ridiculously marathonable...prior to getting super ‘stapled’ on the gerslaure dare Davil Dave and then ‘stuck’ for nearly a half and hour with a subsequent abdominal hernia, my RCP and I still made it to our new ‘must go’ parks late 2019..

So to the point, ‘Marathoning’ can mean all sorts of things but for me, it meant ‘how many possible rides can you possibly get in’ As such, so many variables can be at play to drive that final ride count....

final weekend of the year, (111) rides were done on Goliath at SFOG on Saturday 1/4; RCP did come in towards end of the night with a snack, and they let her get on with me from the exit cue for the (100)th ride. At the last ride of the night (111), the station crew announced a new single day record for any SFOG ride crushing the old record of (80) in a day.

Next day with the intent of doing (89) rides (to do 200 runs in one weekend) ended after 45 runs due to ‘puke’ cleans and natural downtime.

This truly made the experience feel like a physical marathon where re-rides (thank God for SF for still allowing this to happen) became a true endurance. Having the local park staff eager to see ‘when’s he gonna stop’ truly made it an incredible experience; if more knew/tried this marathon feet, the quicker it’d get shutdown.

I have plans for this 2020 season to see just how many rides I can get in a single day/weekend. Every coaster enthusiast seems to have Marathoned once before. Question is, what’s your biggest marathon and where/what ride?!

cheers

Hurler at Carowinds. 1996ish. 39 times in a row.

I couldn't imagine 100 times in a row.

I remember being proud of myself for riding Anaconda at Kings Dominion 17 times.

In a season.

Realistically, I think the one ride I rode the most in a day was Scooby Doo at age 5 or 6, which was essentially when I discovered roller coasters. Couldn't even tell you how many times I rode it, but I'd estimate maybe 10-15.

Marathoning rides just never interested me.

I did 36 laps on Zingo back in the day. I've not gotten close to that with any coaster since.

I'm at about 25 laps on Olympia Looping but that's over a 15 year period.

I've never done a marathon on a single ride, but on a trip to Cedar Point many, many years ago, I bounced between 3 rides continuously for about 2 hours. It was a cool, dreary summer weeknight and the rest of the group I was with decided to call it a day a few hours before the park closed and head back to Sandcastle for some hot tub time. I was hoping to sneak in a ride on TTD before the end of the night so I stayed behind. Unfortunately, it was closed with no estimate for a time to reopen that night (I did get on it during ERT the next morning). I took advantage of the fact that the area was pretty much a ghost town and jumped between continuous rides on Magnum, Power Tower, and Corkscrew. I had a blast, but I was worn out when I finished.

I did 26 on Mamba in one day. I'm sure the Coasting for Kids folks have done 100+.

When I worked at SFOT as a supervisor in the mid-90s, I helped escort a film crew around Texas Giant for one of the Discovery Channel Wild Rides shows. I had to get extras together to ride for the filming and I talked my now-wife, then-girlfriend into volunteering. It was all fun and games when they were only having to ride once every 20 minutes or so in the morning. In the afternoon, the park opened and they reserved one train for the volunteer extras to keep filming and they kept them on the ride for about 4 hours straight. I was in the doghouse for awhile.

I think I did 40+ on Magnum one day, and definitely a few dozen on Gemini during one of the old GKTW events.

57 Raptor, with the last 46 never leaving my seat. Yay for row 7!

Once for a TV shoot I rode Son Of Beast 14 times. I prayed to die.
And I recall from back in my ACE days when we’d ERT so many great coasters. And some not so great, but we’d ride til we couldn’t do any more.
I know this doesn’t stand up to some of our PointBuzzers’ accomplishments but I had a day where I bought FL+ for 80 bucks and rode Steel Vengeance 11 times. It was a slower day in general and I was the only one trotting up those stairs, bypassing those who had an hour wait. Always got my first choice of seats. I could’ve had 111 rides that day if I’d wanted to, but... no. The next day I was so stiff and sore from that work out.

I have marathoned many coasters when getting paid to do so because, you know, that's my job. I don't think I've ever marathoned a ride just for fun. I'd rather ride a variety of things, like I'd rather ride 8 coasters 3 times each than one coaster 24 times.

The one exception was a beautiful but non-crowded day at Hersheypark. My wife and I took my parents, who had never been there before. Judging by how long he's been dead I think my dad would have been about 82 at the time. Didn't make it to Lightning Racer until the evening, and it was a complete walk on. It was running so damn well that day, we all did both sides, but then something happened there where my dad and I just got to some sort of zen state and just kept going on over and over. My mom and wife tapped out after a couple rides, but my dad and I must've done at least 10, alternating between sides. Fun times.

Me & a friend did 40 rides on The Beast at KI last year. We were wondering what the record for the number of Beast rides was for 1 day.

I rode a boomerang twice in a row once. It felt like I rode it 52 times though so does that count?

I rode Viper (Gadv.) one time in a row.

I love marathoning every now & again. But not to have any bragging rights. That's not me. I just love to see what my body can handle. It's for the fun of it.

The most CONSECUTIVE rides was 92 on Gemini during a GKTW event. Normally, you'd think Gemini would be easy. It really kicks your a$$ after awhile! I find Magnum easier to do.

Some of my other 1-day totals are:

Magnum - 83 (no re-rides, walking around every time, no air-gates at that time helped))

Chang - 93 (not great idea to marathon a B&M standup)

Kumba - 83 (Christmas day yrs ago)

Cheetah at Wild Adventures - 116

Voyage - 97 (IMO the hardest to marathon)

Like S&S SFOG mentioned, ride-ops wondering how long you will last, really adds to the fun. My Voyage run, I used a marker to put hash marks on my arm to keep track, as my memory ain't the best anymore! Most parks don't allow re-rides anymore due to various reasons. The last trips to the Busch parks, their policy was you could only ride twice in a row before you had to walk around to ride again.

CoffinBoy said:

Cheetah at Wild Adventures - 116

Rode that once last year. Questioned by ability to ride a wooden coaster ever again.

CoffinBoy said:

Chang - 93 (not great idea to marathon a B&M standup)

A vasectomy is probably a much more comfortable and convenient way to ensure that you never have any more children.

Pretty sure I knocked a few years off my lifespan just by reading CoffinBoy's post. YMMV and all, but none of that sounds fun to me.

The only ride I’ve continuously ridden over 10 times in a row (without getting off) has been Magnum (15 times Joe Cool Ride nights 2006, 11 times random weekday in May twoish years ago.) Quite frankly it’s one of only a handful of coasters (I coaster I adore that is not too forceful) that I would consider doing, my body either won’t let me or I will get bored on most rides. Sure if allowed I have and will continue to do 2-5 laps on a much larger list but 5 is usually the limit.

I have also done an every coaster (I could fit in, no Jr Gemini or Wicked Twister) in one day run at Cedar Point one Labor Day in the late aughts.

Ive also done 14 days in a row of theme parking (2 days at DLR, 1 at Knotts, 3 days at DLR, 4 days at WDW, 1 day at BGT, 3 days at Universal) which I will never do again (too much of a good thing.)

If we are talking about any ride and basing it on length, then I’ve been known to go for 2+ hour runs on lazy rivers at Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Noah’s Ark, Cedar Point Shores, The Falls at Schlitterbahn, Hubba Hubba Highway at Water Country USA and these marathons are by far my favorite and ones I see happening for years to come, my bladder is usually the only limiting factor that ends these marathons.

yawetag said:

CoffinBoy said:

Cheetah at Wild Adventures - 116

Rode that once last year. Questioned by ability to ride a wooden coaster ever again.

It was in 2005 last time I rode it and it only had one bad spot.

bigboy - After a number of laps on Chang, I learned to lower seat just a tad to give me some room.

Vater - I am sure that the marathoning had something to do the spine fractures & nerve issues I had in my back. :)