Must be this tall to ride this rollercoaster

The sunday following the marathon I was still feeling the joy of accomplisment, almost as if walking on air. So we headed out early in the morning to Cedar Point to ride the rollercoasters and check out all the fun Halloween stuff they had set up like haunted houses.

When I was a kid I loved riding rollercoasters, the higher, the faster, the more loops the better! That's kind of how I am some might call it being an adrenaline junky, I don't know all I know is everything I do it seems I want to go faster, and the time I went sky diving in Atlantic City was no different. Free falling from 14,000 feet was an incredible rush and I can't wait to do it again! Anyway back to the story at hand, I hadn't rode a rollercoaster in eight or nine years so it had been a while. First up was the raptor, which was brand new last time I was at CP, which might date the trip a little bit. It was just like I remembered it fast and fun! Now here is where things got shaken up a bit. Next up was well I don't remember what it was called but I know I didn't like it! It's a giant pendulum that not only swings back and forth (which I was okay with) but it also rotates at the same time, first one direction, then the other. Oh boy did I wanna hurl on everything when we got off. Luckily after sitting down for five minutes or so seemed to help, but from then on the slightest thing would make me queasy. Of course immediately following my ride induced naseau we headed to the Millenium Force, and guess what felt like I was gonna yak on some poor innocent bystander. I decided to be smart and sat out from the mantis and after that the rest of the day seemed a lot better. The haunted houses and other attractions were awesome and I have to say that Top Fuel Dragster is the best ride I've ever been on! I'm just glad that the queasy feeling went away and I was able to enjoy the rest of the trip. Little did I know it wasn't going to be the last time I felt sick before the day was out.

All day long I was noticing that my girlfriend seemed distant, and just kind of off. By the time we dropped of  our friend that went with us and got home it was getting close to 2am. Every part of me wanted to go to bed, but first I wanted to make sure everything was okay, and know why she was acting so odd at the park. Here comes the sick feeling, I got dumped, right then and there in the kitchen. Hit me like a ton of bricks, now I'm not saying it was a perfect relationship leading up to this point, we had differences here and there but we we're always able to talk about things and work them out. Not this time though. In an instant all the good feelings I had felt from all I had accomplished over the past year flew out the window, and instead was replaced with feelings of failure and hurt. The fact that we still lived together didn't make things much easier, luckily our opposite work schedules allowed for minimum contact to be easily achieved.

I had originally planned on taking a week or so off from running after the marathon and then get back into training. Instead I felt like my life was a poorly played game of jenga and someone had just pulled out the one piece that had been sitting there precariously balancing it all out. After the pieces hit the floor I turned to what I felt was the easiest option, drowning my sorrows with friends at the bar and of course as the drinks kept flowing the will power to not smoke dwindled until there was none remaining. I had fallen back into the life that I had been so proud to have left behind. Not nearly as bad as before but bad enough. More than once I found myself leaving the bar at closing time on week nights and waking up the next day with a hangover and a mouth that tasted like an ashtray. Thankfully before things got completely out of hand I was able to get the late bar nights out of my system and I realized I wanted something more out of life, I realized I was worth more than that. I attribute this realization to great friends and an amazing family. Since then I've made peace with the fact that it wasn't going to work out with the ex, and that we are both happier going our seperate directions, but it was hard for a while. I've relearned my self respect, and have started running again, no more crazy late weekday bar nights and no more smoking! This time I'm doing it for me, not for someone else and I think that's why it failed so easily at the slightest setback.

Like I said I started running a couple months ago, and this time I've got a friend who has also taken up running. We run together two days a week and I always try to get at least one more run in during the remainder of the week. It has been so much more fun to have someone to run with this time around. So here we are today, all caught up with my disappearance, my joy, and my frustrations in life. It feels like I've started all over again and for all intents and purposes I have, but it feels good. My buddy and I are running a 5k at our old high school this Saturday, and we're both excited. We ran it last year and it was a lot of fun, and memorable at the same time. You see two years ago on the 14th of March, we were both in motorcycle accidents less than a mile away from eachother and less than ten minutes apart, both on our way home from work. His injuries were much more serious than mine. I only had to spend a few hours in the ER having my knee stitched up due to the two gaping holes where you could see my knee cap, and having other wounds cleaned out. I hit a guard rail on the highway, he hit a car that turned in front of him. His pelvis was split in two right down the middle, and he spent the next month in the hospital with a series of rods sticking out of his waist which were attached to the plate that now holds his hips together. So last year when we ran that race we both realized how close we had come to not being there. Both of us are looking to better our times from last year, and I know for sure he is much more prepared this time around. The future looks great and I'm looking forward to another great year of running.