Marathon After-thoughts

Well, it's been a while since I added anything meaningful here and a couple weeks since the marathon. I really wanted to take some time afterward to do other things and stay busy so that I could reflect on what the marathon was and wasn't with a good level of clarity.

I may have been a little disappointed with the turnout during and maybe shortly after it was over. I felt like what we(Duce1621 and myself) accomplished should have been recognized more than what it ultimately was. After some time, that feeling all but totally went away. The people who were there did a lot to spur us on and help us out and I'm thankful for their support. Still, we know within ourselves what we did and how hard it was to press on and finish.

In the end, I ended up singing 250 songs over the course of 26 hours with some small breaks here and there. To those who said something like that could NOT be done on Vocals: it really can, and more. If you pace yourself and don't waste your voice foolishly, I really think 40+ hours is possible. I should note that this probably isn't possible for everyone to do. If you're a Vocalist thinking about doing something like this, please, please test yourself beforehand, see a doctor and make sure that your vocal cords can handle something like this. If pushed too far, your vocal cords can and will suffer permanent damage. I would be more than happy to speak with anyone who's thinking of going down this path and relay the steps I took to reach the decision that I could do it and what I did during the marathon to keep things rolling.

There were a few moments where my voice tightened a bit, but with some tea, throat drops and breaks I was able to bring it back to a comfortable level. My low octave control slipped a little at the end, but not enough to derail me in any real way. My throat wasn't really sore at all the next couple days(I actually picked up WT that same day and played it on Vox that night for a little bit).

I ended up with 137 FC's out of the 250 songs played. I consider this a very satisfying number considering I sang almost every song the way I wanted to. I would say of the 113 I didn't FC, more than half were -1's that I could probably FC almost every time out. I very nearly pulled out a Young Man Blues FC at hour 25. Honestly, under RB1's difficulty, I would have been hard pressed to hit 100. It's sort of a statement to the ease of RB2's Vocals, but also the flexibility.

Where the event leads me afterward in terms of what I want to do with Vocals is very unclear. My interest in RB2 Vocals was already down to almost zero before the marathon. I think if the band we're trying to put together can get going there might be something there, but for right now there's just too many other things to do. GH:WT's Vocals are way too strange and poorly put together to be taken seriously by anyone, anywhere. I'm not ruling out participating in a tournament somewhere for it though.

Saying I'm hanging up my mic would be premature. I still love to sing and play but the little competitive spirit that I was born with is not interested in fighting Vocals anywhere. It's been a tremendous ride though, and I would never have imagined just how many friends and people I would have met through a medium like ScoreHero. I certainly wouldn't have found myself in a great community like the PMS/H2O clan. So, I'm happy and content with how things have panned out. A real-life tournament win somewhere would be interesting, but in light of the marathon, I don't feel that I have anything to prove anymore. It's all about kickin' back and having fun now. :)