The Quiz Nights

I like films. Or should I say I REALLY like films. I remember loads of quotes and who starred in what film. Considering recent events I re-watched Zombieland. The film is about trying to survive in a world ravaged by zombies. The lead character has various rules he lives by to survive. One of my favourite rules is something I really try to do. Rule #32 enjoy the little the things.

This seems a strange way to start an article for a running club. But we now live in strange times. In the grand scheme of things, a running club isn’t important. But it is also incredibly important. With everything going on in the world at the moment, we would turn to the club as an escape, a release from reality and see our dear friends. Lockdown means our normal coping mechanisms have been put under incredible strain because we can no longer meet as EGRC. On the plus side, it does mean we don’t have to do Manor Road or Coxgrove hill repeats. Rule #32, enjoy the little things!

Which brings me back to my love of films. If EGRC can no longer meet, how do we get through this? A long time ago, I ran an online football prediction game. I wrote the code for the website and the system marked everyone’s predictions and I would bring in the updated league table on a Monday morning. Could I do the same for EGRC? Do something to provide a release? Do something so people don’t feel so isolated? I won’t lie, I also needed to do something to keep me going. So a movie quiz seemed an easy thing to put together. 

I didn’t have the time to remind myself how to code it for the first quiz, so thought maybe people could email in the answers and I could mark it as things went along. Got my YouTube account enabled for live streaming. All ready to go.

Come the night of the quiz, I had no idea how it would go. It seems my questions on that first quiz were especially difficult, didn’t get a correct answer from anyone until about question 3! The emails would either come in floods or nothing for a minute. Which made juggling marking the questions and reading out the questions quite difficult.

But we did it. And it worked. I would like to think people enjoyed it. I suspect they did as they came the following week and the week after. I don’t do the marking on the fly anymore. I have a google form with all the answers down in a multiple choice format. Does mean even if you have no idea of the answer, you generally have a 25% chance of getting it right. Unless you fall for my trick questions, 5 people this week thought a baby shot of Kylie Minogue was Robert Redford! Week 2 was better than Week 1 and Week 3 improved on Week 2.

I will keep on doing this each week whilst we are in lockdown. As a release for me just as much as a release for you! We may not be in a position to do much about Rule #1 Cardio but we can take that time to read that book, play that game with the family, catchup on that boxset. Remember, Rule #32, enjoy the little things. Changing room 4 will open its’ door once more, until then, we can meet online.

“No matter how cold the winter, there’s a springtime ahead”

Thumbing My way, Pearl Jam.