Readathon Wrap-Up

I like rules. I do. The boundaries show me where I can tread safely. That makes me feel secure. But on occasion I feel the need to scrap the rules and take my chances. That's what I'm doing here for my Readathon Wrap-up. I'm not sure what the risks are for avoiding the confines of the questionnaire but I'm willing to accept the consequences. This morning it's just my sleep deprived thoughts on a crazy ride that only true book nerds can appreciate.

This was my first readathon but I have read Eva from A Striped Armchair every time she has participated. She's fun and prolific, in her reading and her posting; so I wasn't completely unaware of what I was getting myself into.

I started with a good night's sleep on Friday. I highly recommend this first step. It was probably the thing that helped me the most. I was awake at 5am (and I assure you, I am not a morning person) and didn't feel tired until about 11pm, and even then I caffeinated myself a little to get me through to the end. I didn't really struggle until the 24th hour when every minute stretched to 5x its usual length.

I exercised, frequently. If nothing else I paced the room with book in hand. But mostly I did weights or stretching. The mini-challenges that involved yoga and dancing were the best.

I tried to eat mostly healthy foods. This kind of broke down around dinnertime. I skipped dinner and then kept snacking to fill myself but fish crackers and sunflower seeds just don't make up for protein and veggies. This is also when I broke out the cherry coke which helped me stay awake but also gave me the jitters and necessitated frequent potty breaks. I'll do better next time.

One thing I did wrong, in my opinion, was to skip my daily shower. Let me tell you, you don't want to get a whiff at the end of a 24 hour period, especially when your last shower was actually 16 hours before those 24 hours began. A rose I am not. My shower this morning felt luxurious in comparison.

I will participate in the future but I don't plan to do the whole 24 hours again. Though my best reading (page count) was after 10pm and I did win a prize for being awake in the 23rd hour, I now feel guilty that I sit at home, again on the computer, while my family sits in church without me. I feel as if I've cut class on a test day; my anxiety at having missed the test outweighs my pleasure in having successfully ditched. :(

I cannot think of a thing that could be done differently on the management side. The cheerleaders were awesome. My Blackberry was ringing continually with your comments and encouragements. What a nice treat! Thank you to everyone who stopped in and who tweeted. Perhaps next time I'll sign up to be a cheerleader for part of the time.

A Few Stats:
Books Read-4,
*Confessions of a Slacker Wife by Muffy Mead-Ferro
*Green Angel by Alice Hoffman
*The Coming of the Fairies by Arthur Conan Doyle
*Playing Botticelli by Liza Nelson
Pages Read: 468
Hours Awake: all 24
New Posts in my Google Reader: 169
My #readathon Tweets: exactly 50
Prizes Won: two, a book and $10 Amazon gift card
Drabbles Written: one :D