It's Over

The competition was Saturday. Here's the scoop:

Tommye & I got to the Taste about 2pm. Found the IFOCE guy handling the signups. I saw the list of entered athletes; being a realist, I pretty much knew the results. There was Rich LeFevre, Ron Koch, Donovan Busta. Positions 1, 2, 3 right there. I'll get back to the results in a sec...

So Rich Shea takes the stage. After some pomp and circumstance, the contestants are announced one by one. There are 11 of us. I think I came out fourth. My spot is 2nd from the right. Maybe 300 people in the crowd. Good feeling up there looking out on the crowd. There's Tommye, Amy, Michael, Paul, Steve, and over there's Tod and Becky. That's cool!

The eating: we each had three plates in front of us with 5 cheeses piled on each. Sammies were inconsistent - some nicely toasted brown, some yellow. I would have preferred more grilled as that's what I trained on.

10..9..8..7..6..5..4..3..2..1..GO! Grab, fold, dip, bite, swallow. Repeat. I don't remember a whole lot until I get down #4 at the 2:10 mark. A little off my pace. Can I keep the same pace for 8 more minutes? Rich was on #8 at that mark. Wow. He is not #3 IN THE WORLD for nothing! Wow! Go man go. His method - using a 8x8 cake pan filled with water, he would bathe the gc in the liquid, and then kind of inhale the wet mixture. He may be on to something!! The eating's a blur for me until 8:00. I'm on #7. Rich was probably on #15 or #16. When the 10 minutes expire, I've finished 8. I think I finished #8 at 9:45 and watched The Locust (LeFevre) for the last bit. I'm in awe!

As expected, 1-3 was LeFevre, Koch, Busta.

1. 21 - LeFevre
2. 19 - Koch
3. 12.5 - Busta
4. 12
5. 9
6. 8 - me
6. 8 - Dan, training to run a marathon
8. 7.5
9. 6
10. 5.5
11. DNF

So there it is. I could make some excuses - the 90 degree heat, the sun on the stage, a cut on my right index finger, but I won't. Respectable showing, I mean downing 8 is no small task. Eight is what I ate. I think we all knew that with Lefevre there spot #1 was his. And Koch would take #2. So #3 was open. When I heard Busta was ahead of me and going strong, well, so it goes. This is a guy who downed a Chipotle burrito in 54 seconds. And he ate 3 of the humongos in 8 minutes. Say what?

Next - in three weeks, a qualifier at the New Mexico State Fair in Albuquerque. I'll be posting the training etc as necessary.