Can I run faster than a Roller Coaster?

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Can I run faster than a roller coaster?

[00:00:02]Falcon's Flight is now the fastest roller coaster, hitting 155 mph as you are launched down the side of a 600 ft cliff. Most major parks have a coaster at least over 200 ft tall and over 70 mph. The fastest coaster I've ridden was the late King Daka, which hit an advertised speed of 128 mph as it launched riders over a 456 ft hill.

[00:00:28]However, these incredibly fast coasters feature many slow sections on the break runs and idle time stopped in the station loading and unloading passengers. But what if I told you I can run faster than King Daka? And I'm not just saying that cuz it doesn't exist anymore. And I will prove it in this very video. In this video, I will look at two different kinds of roller coasters I can run faster than. The first kind is simple. These coasters are so slow that my max speed while sprinting is faster than their top speed. But I will also test coasters that I am able to run their full length of track faster than it takes them to load people on, complete the ride course, and then return into the station. I will use some interesting simulations using No Limits 2 to virtually race these coasters. And we will answer the question, are you faster than a roller coaster? I'm Christian G Coasters. Christian coers.

[00:01:26]>> And if you've been enjoying the content on this channel, be sure to like, comment, and subscribe. It helps my channel out a lot. First, let's talk about how fast I am. I have been running competitively for 12 years now, and I recently just completed the Boston Marathon in a time of 2 hours 44 minutes, and 58 seconds. That averages out to 9 1/2 mph. My max speed is actually around 19 mph, though. I can run 100 m in a time of 12.85 seconds, which is an average of 17.4 mph. But since that's from a standstill start, my actual top speed during that race is right around 19 mph. So, before I explain how I'm faster than a 128 mph coaster, let's look at some coasters that are slower than 19 mph. And the slowest recorded roller coaster is Den Allen Minsta at Tusenfrid in Norway.

[00:02:23]This hits an unremarkable 3.7 mph. This SPF visa kitty coaster is claimed to be the smallest coaster in the world and its name in Alen Minsta literally translates to the very smallest. It has a height of 8.2 ft and 85.3 ft in track length. I could walk faster than this coaster. And since the average adult running speed is 6 to 8 miles per hour, most people can go faster than this roller coaster. Now, onto a more famous roller coaster, Wilderness Run at Cedar Point. This coaster hits a max speed of 6 mph, so this is getting a little bit faster into that jogging range. I can't quite walk this pace, but the speed I held at this year's Boston Marathon is faster than it. And since Wilderness Run only has a track length of 443 feet and a marathon is 138,435 ft, that means I can hold Wilderness Run speed for 312 times the length of its track. Another famous coaster for the kids is the Wacky Worm. These smalls size attractions typically feature a train designed to look like a worm and even sometimes go through an apple. And it has the iconic little wiggly bumps in the track. With a max speed of 13.4 miles per hour, they are around the pace I can hold for an entire mile. The Italian manufacturer Zamperila is quite a popular choice for family coasters. Their family coaster model can be found at many different parks across the world and they reach a max speed of 16 mph. I can hold that speed for around 400 m or one lap around the track. The most notable version of this coaster is the Daddy Pigs roller coaster roller coaster at the Peppa Pig theme parks in Florida and Texas. So, yes, I'm faster than Daddy Pig. And actually, considering that pigs can only run 11 to 15 mph, the Peppa Pigs roller coaster is also faster than a pig. Now, the final coaster in this category is right at my max running speed, and it is quite an interesting one. The dog fart coaster. Hundaputin at Bon Bon Land in Denmark literally translates to dog fart. So, as you travel along in the dog themed cars and get farted on by Henry the dog, just know that you are in fact traveling at Christian G Coasters max running speed. Okay, now it's time to switch up the categories. And it's finally time I explain why I am faster than the 128 mph King Daka. And no, it's not because it got blown up into a million pieces. I am genuinely faster when you factor in the average speed. So far, I have only been looking at roller coaster max speed, the fastest speed these coasters hit at any point during the ride. However, roller coasters spend a lot of time unloading and loading riders, going up slow lift hills, sitting on brake runs, and that got me wondering, are there roller coasters out there that I am able to run their full length of track before they unload passengers, load passengers, and complete the entire ride. And it turns out there are quite a few of them. In true Christian G Coasters fashion, I graphed the data and did a simulated race of me versus King Da. so it is easier to visualize. I made a distance versus time graph and plotted my fastest times in the 100 meter, the mile, the 3k, and the 5k. I went through and timed the on-ride POV of eight coasters: Beast, Candymonium, Fury 325, Great Bear, King Da, Magnum XL 200, Super Duper Looper, and Wildcats Revenge. I then added one minute to their ride time to account for loading and unloading passengers, which is pretty generous. It often can take well over a minute depending on how fast the guests and the ride operators are moving. Then I can take their track length and plot that on the graph along with my running PRs.

[00:06:30]This line connects all my fastest times.

[00:06:33]So I am slower than any roller coasters in the area above the line and I am faster than any coasters in this area under the line. So now I can finally prove I'm faster than King Daka. King Da had a track length of 3,118 ft and it took 1 minute and 40 seconds from dispatching to returning to the station. Add 1 minute for unloading and loading riders and that means I have to be able to run 3,118 ft in less than 2 minutes and 40 seconds. That is roughly 950 m or a little less than 2 and 1/2 laps on the track. And when we plot it on the graph, I am just barely faster than it. So, let's take it to the track and go head-to-head. I flattened out Kingda to go along the track at the same speed of the actual ride. And I set my constant pace of 13.9 mph to race alongside.

[00:07:29]Again, we are racing 2 and 1/2 laps. So, let's see if I will cross the finish line first.

[00:07:38]So, King Daka starts with a minute parked in the station to unload and load riders. This gives me a pretty solid head start as I am almost done with my first lap. Kingda then dispatches to the launch track and it waits to launch. As it waits to launch, I'm a full lap ahead. However, King Daka accelerates from 0 to 128 mph in 3 1/2 seconds and quickly passes me and is now only 400 m behind. It slows down a little bit as it goes over the massive hill, but it gains a lot of ground. It then hits the brakes and slows down dramatically, pulling up right beside me. It's going to be a close finish. But as King Daka continues to crawl around the final turn and slowly pulls in the station, it falls off my pace and I am just barely able to cross the finish line first. So yes, I am faster than King Da. I'm able to run 3,118 ft faster than it took King Da to unload, load, and go through its ride cycle. Now, of course, if operators dispatched the train in under a minute, then King Daka would win. But anytime over a minute, I would be a clear winner. Now, of course, I can only hold that pace for one of King Dako's ride cycles. After 1 hour, one train would complete around 20 ride cycles, almost 12 miles every hour. After an 8-hour day, the train has traveled over 90 m. I cannot run 90 m in a day. I've been close to hitting 90 mi in a week. So, take this race with a grain of salt. But anyway, let's take a look at those seven other coasters that I'm able to run faster than their average speed for one ride cycle. And here they are all plotted out. I am slower than Fury 325, Candymonium, and Magnum XL 200. I was only really surprised about being slower than Magnum. I thought for sure its slow, long lift hill and brake runs would give me an edge, but it is just barely faster than me. I was expecting the beast to go either way. It's over a mile long, but I had a feeling it's two slow lift hills and extremely stretched out final break run would make it slower than me. And Super Duper Looper is the slowest out of the coasters I selected, which is no surprise. It has a slow lift hill and long final brake run. And it's also very short in track length. It has such a long ride time that even if I take the minute I added for unloading and loading passengers, it is right on the line and basically a tie. But that's pretty crazy that Super Duper Looper has a max speed of 45 mph and I can still run its track length faster than it. One more thing I wanted to look at were how do elite athletes stack up to these coasters? I am just some amateur distance runner. So, my top speed of 19 mph is pretty fast, but Elite Runners are way faster. Usain Bolt has an insane top speed of 27.8 mph, so he is faster than Wild Mouse coasters and even Space Mountain at Disney World. And if I plot the world record times of various distances, you can see that elite runners are faster than Magnum XL 200 and Candymonium, but they still can't touch Fury 325. and also adding the women's world record line. The women's world records are also faster than the same coasters the elite men are faster than. And now even if I take out the minute I added for load and unload time, elite athletes can still run faster than some of these coasters. Magnum, Great Bear, Kingda, Candymonium, and Fury now rise above the elite athletes, but Super Duper Looper, Wildcats Revenge, and Beast are still slower. This boggles my mind because you're telling me an elite athlete can run the 3,510 ft of Wildcats Revenge faster than Wildcats Revenge. I hope you found this countdown an interesting way to quantify how slow roller coasters really are.

[00:11:44]They hit some incredible top speeds, but roller coasters have so much idle time that humans can cover the same distance faster. This is like the real life equivalent to the tortoise and the hair story. So, are there any coasters that you are faster than? Comment down below.

[00:11:59]I'm Christian G Coasters. Thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next video.

[00:12:13]Christianers