SB Recap #5 : The Proverbial Cup is Half-Full

After everything settled down, I had some time to better analyze the event. It was quite humbling to say the least. The monstrous size of the burger was something! I had prepared well for this. I was ready. I was Hungry and Focused. I was ready. It was only my 4th event. I was ready.

Then, I made some mistakes. Damn rookie. Mistakes. I had trained with H2O as dunk juice. Event day, a couple hours before the event, I went in search of a lemonade elixir that I'd used before. Mistake. Couldn't find it, "so I'll use this Kiwi stuff instead". Mistake. I'd never tried it "but I will now". Mistake. When the comp began I figured out pretty quickly that the Kiwi crap was just that, but I kept with it. Mistake. Yes, the pH of it was better than water, but Mistake. And, the burger was not what I expected - pinker and oniony flavor - so I let that throw me off. Mistake. Due to being thrown off, I chipmunked. Mistake. So there were mistakes on my part. I did not do as well as I had done, could do, and I had expected to do.

But, even with all that, the experience was competitive gold for me. One thing about me is I learn from everything so the next time something happens I do what is the best thing in the situation (OK, Tommye may have her own take on this in some cases!). The same thing, more or less, happened in the grilled cheese competitions - my Denver performance was not too good, but I learned from it, and Albuquerque was much improved. And Raleigh was improved on ABQ.

So while competitively the results in Vega$ were not good, in the grand scheme of things only time will tell if the experience pays off down the road. I think it will. Stay tuned!

SB