Hey guys, it's certainly been a long time since writing one of these, but I'm dropping one down because I'm actually quite proud of my efforts. 
I haven't been playing too many new games, partly because of my uninterest in the current standard, partly because I don't have much time, and partly because my computer is dying by the minute. So when I do have the time, I usually jump onto Quake III for a quick round.
I've actually owned Quake III since 2000, when I was a wee tyke pwning noobs at a third grade level. Satisfied with completing the game on "I Can Win", I put it away for a time, but over the last three years or so, I've been playing Quake III reguarly (offline I might add, I have beautifully failed to ever play the game online), slowly building my skill over time. All times I've tried Nightmare has usally been for a laugh just to see how ridiculously hard it is to win. I remember getting extremely frustrated with the game when I couldn't even beat Crash on Nightmare. Intensley angering.
And with that, I convinced myself Nightmare was impossible, and only the most amazing gamers could tackle the AI. So over the last year or so, I've been convincingly winning Hardcore difficulty over and over - to the point of boredom, but never trying my hand at Nightmare, for fear of losing again. I usually stick to DM17 (The Longest Yard) and know the map like the back of my hand.
So, last weekend, I looked and the big Nightmare button, and thought - "Whatever, if I lose, I'll be expecting it. Let's try it out." So I started up for Nightmare once again - but this time, it was slightly different. This time, I was right up there on the scoreboard. I eventually lost, but I knew that, with a small amount of practice, I could do it. Three tries later, I had. I had won Nightmare for the first time. I had done the impossible task. And so I moved onto one map to another, and slowly won nightmare again and again. I was actually surprised that what I once thought was downright impossible, seemed so basic now.
So I know it may not seem like a very incredible task compared to others, especially coming off the Olympics, hehe - but I decided that an eight year struggle with my favourite DM game that I finally conquered deserved a mention. If anyone actually bothered reading all of that, thanks.