This is just a quick post to pass along my heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed to my first time trying Extra Life. I set myself what I thought was an ambitious goal of $500 and people came through in spades and I ended up with a grand total of $728, 146% of my goal! I also found out before I finished my 24 hours that not only did Extra Life set a new record for this year but they made over $1.1 million which is not just the first time they’ve passed a million but it’s also more than all the previous years of the event combined! That’s beyond badass.
For my part, I did better than I thought I would, especially since I’d had trouble sleeping for a couple of weeks before the big day. I only needed 5 coffees over the 24 hours and was expecting to need at least double that. Not to say it was easy though. In the last few hours, I nearly nodded off a couple of times, I was sore all over (particularly my neck which has chronic stiffness issues to begin with), I had a small bout of nausea and my eyes were burning. Had I not been working out the last month or so, I think it would have been a lot harder. It was still a great experience though and knowing it was for a good cause made it easier. The games I finished and the ton of achievement points I earned on the 360 didn’t hurt either.
I recorded little videos of myself at the various stages which I was planning to cut together to show my contributors but I’ll see what happens with that. I have to review but in the end, they’re just short clips of my face talking into the camera and if I’m honest, I think they’re pretty boring. I’d always planned to record something but I didn’t really try to plan it at all until it was too late and it didn’t make for compelling content. If I can edit it together in some kind of interesting way, I’ll definitely post it.
This was a great experience and knowing my first time was in a record year makes it all the more awesome. To everyone who contributed, you’re all super rockstars for helping that happen. Thank you all so much! I definitely plan to do it again next year.