Thoughts on my first marathon run

On April 7th, 2019, I did my first ever marathon run at BSG Monthly #29: Ocarina of Time No IM/WW in 1:21:11* (estimate was 1:21:00). I will do No IM/WW again during BSG Annual in August, so it's worth reflecting on what went wrong so I can improve for the bigger marathon.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/408657030


~the run itself~

I had prepared my commentary with notes. I don't own a printer, so I put the txt file on my eReader and put it in front of me during my run, next to my Wii. After escape, as I attempted to unlock my eReader, I pushed the fucking reset button with my eReader. It was a funny moment for sure, but unfortunately I now had to replay 6 minutes and come up with random new commentary on the spot. I kinda couldn't. At the start of the intro, I just said what I had saved for another cutscene and went silent after that. Really fucked up the pacing of my commentary at the start.

Overall the run was good. 2 big mistakes made me miss my 1:21:00 estimate:
-10 explosives spirit hover, then fell down trying to hess across, got bombs off 4th rock and killed myself with ocarina buffering, which cost me 50 seconds. I was just happy that I was able to get spirit hover at all with the input lag
-Died to stalfos in forest, which cost me 3 minutes (also because of further choking while going through forest the second time)

And there were many minor timelosses:
-Got bridge flip first try, both attempts. Nice.
-Failed preferred WESS escape setup and WESS escape itself, both attempts. Sad.
-Enter Guards was really good. Only missed cucco ISG and accidentally pressed yes at the second owl text, but otherwise good
-The damage boost was sketchy as fuck though. I pulled chu way earlier than is comfortable and was just barely able to make it
-Guards went well. Played it safe, didn't get caught
-DoT skip was bad, mostly because I rely on a visual cue for the backwards sidehop and I had a hard time adjusting for the input lag
-50 dampe, sloppy
-Dead hand RNG wasn't great
-Failed shadow bk skip once, and had 6 extra buffers in total
-Failed both DC switch jumps
-Got hit off the climbable wall in DMT
-Failed a hess in hyrule field
-Failed setup for gate skip once, gate skip was 2 extra pauses
-1 missed rova hit, but got a double as well
-Hit by wolfos while trying to hookshot up to the first key
-Damage boost 1 extra pause
-Failed trials skip once because I pulled 2nd bomb too early (shit rookie mistake tbh)
-Dinolfos and stalfos were ok, knuckles were perfect
-Couldn't hess up the stairs because not enough bombs
-Bad movement at the end of collapse split


~things to do better at annual~

-Talk more. I had a few topics prepared to talk about, but it wasn't enough because im/wwn't has way too many cutscenes. Commentary during dungeon gameplay was good, but I didn't have enough filler topics ready for cutscenes.
-Next time, make the category name "No Item Manipulation, No Wrong Warp". Way too many people in chat asked what No IM/WW meant, and I only explained it at the very beginning of attempt 1. I should repeat it every 15-30 minutes or so.
-BSG's setup used an OSSC and a monitor. On it, I experienced more input lag than on my monitor at home. This really threw me off. I had to either rely on audio cues or muscle memory alone, or use a visual cue and consciously adjust for the input lag. Next time, I would rather use a CRT just to be safe.
-I should stop saying "like", like, all the time. Makes me sound like a teenage girl.
-Avoid using acronyms like "ZL". I already tried this, but some of them still slipped through.
-When the timer hit 4:18 in attempt 1, a donator named Anthony asked if I could do a frontflip. I can totally do that so I assured him he'd get his frontflip. I instantly forgot. Sorry Anthony ;_;
-A lot of my stories have missing details that I came up with in advance, but just forgot to mention. Like:
	-im/wwn't has the most submitted runs of any oot category but any%
	-how much time is saved by all these new tricks
	-new child owl skips
	-what I got ISG off of in BotW
	-why ocarina dive works
	-forgot to shoutout oot3d for still not having early explosives yet
	-the damage boost to guards skips getting weird egg and waking Talon
	-halfway during mscs I mention mst without explaining what it even is
	-didn't mention the weird stuff in rova fights, like sometimes needing 5 hits, doubles/triples
	-didn't even say anything about the rova fight during the cutscene leading up to it
	-didn't explain hookshotting rova to make her start moving earlier during phase 2
	-didn't explain the history of void warp being banned in no ww categories


~things i probably shouldn't mention at annual~

-While I did mention active high-level competition, I didn't talk about any individual runner like cruxer, cma, or tsundere.rar because, to the marathon watching audience, things like how quickly cruxer improved or how cma will probably 1:14 soon are just not good stories.
-ESS adapters. I'm salty about them and expressing my salt would just stir unnecessary drama and make oot look bad to outsiders. Since it's impossible for me to talk about ESS adapters without salt, it's best to just avoid the topic entirely.
-Rando. Specifically, how many top rta players like marco, bono and juwk have mostly abandoned rta in favor of rando. This would also turn into a salty rant (to an audience that's somewhat likely to enjoy rando), so I'll also avoid that.
-My 45 dampe. It would turn a huge bragfest, no one wants to hear that.


~funny shit~

-During attempt 1, I bonked in Link's house because I looked away from the screen when Xita started talking to me
-Just like with forest escape in 22:38, I didn't mention failing cucco ISG in kak on purpose. 95% of people probably didn't notice that I even failed anything, and thought that Navi dive is my main strat and I just stabbed the cucco for no reason. Thanks Cosmo
-During Zelda cutscene, the donation counter was at €420. I suggested to keep it at 420 because it's a meme number. I later realized that incentivizing viewers to NOT donate is about the last thing you should do during a charity marathon
-During the magic cutscene, I asked if there were still more donations. Xita was unfortunately absent
-During one of the Twinrova cutscenes, I asked if there were still more donations. The hosts did not hear my question. I figured attempting to get their attention in vain would look pretty awkward on stream, so I just pretended like they answered me and went "no? oh ok". Crisis averted
-After the rova fight, I said I was probably gonna make the estimate and totally jinxed myself
-In forest, didn't explain climbing on the ladder while holding Z to instantly snap to that angle at the top of the ladder
-After the knuckles fight I almost said apeshit. Just barely held it in. Chat was amused
-I didn't know the English word for organ in the pre-dorf fight cutscene, so I called it a piano. I got corrected by Xita and then explained the ignorance in my vocabulary

~other stuff~

-Hookshot jump was exactly 2 years old on the day of my run and I didn't even know. I wish I'd opened Timehop before my run, rather than after.

*It was probably actually 1:21:20 (gotta retime still) because they messed up starting the timer.