Huge Win!

I had gone to Perry without a spot reserved at the final table. Back in August when the KSO schedule was announced I decided then that I would not sign up for a spot through the IFOCE but rather show up somewhere and either qualify in one of the 2-minute qualifiers or not qualify and go home with my tail between my legs.

I got to Atlanta late on Friday. Before going to the free hotel (thanks Hangman!) I stopped in at a Krystal.

My parents came out to Colorado from Florida in September and they had brought 10 Krystals. I had never had one before. The steam of the fresh burgers in Florida had condensed pretty well and sogged the buns by the time we opened the container in Colorado, so I really wanted to get some fresh burgers in Atlanta. It was Saturday morning by the time I ordered and ate my combo #1 but the unsoggy burgers were delicious. Nice!

I ate, went to the very small (but free) hotel room. Shockingly a few hours later I pooped!

My normal schedule is a 12-18 hour rotation, but with the tell-tale yellow hue there was no denying - some hamburger bun carbs were on the way out already! Woohoo!

Oh, the photo above is showing you how crazy small the room was. Me on the pot, face against the wall. And who can possibly say that we did not evolve from apes? Does that back hair say simian or what?!?

In the morning I get to the fair in Perry pretty early, meet up with my parents, and hang out until 2-minute sign-ups begin. Turns out Russ Keeler is hanging out too. I made him out as a likely contender (meet him and you'll know why I assumed that!) but I did not know it was Russ Keeler until a bit later. I had not met him before and to me pictures of him looked unlike the live person.

I get in the first qualifier. When the eating begins, I go to dunk and the bun just completely disintegrates when pulled out of the cup. Instead of holding each burger in my fingers I end up eating mush from my cupped hand. In the end, I get 11 down. Qualifying, not necessarily winning, was the goal. With double digits qualifying was safely done. After Kittie counted 8 for one guy, and 10 for another, my 11 won it! So for an hour:

Russ was in the second qualifier. He won his with 14. I did not see the board again so I do not know where my 11 and his 14 stood after qualifying but I was in so it's all good.

Sunday. Before I ran into Rich in the parking lot I did not know who the "name" would be. It had not been announced in the press or anything. With Joey going to waffles, I thought Rich but time would tell.

The stage was not that wide so there'd be 4 eaters up top and 6 below. Only 10 eaters in the final. Rich, Steak, Micah, Russ, and 6 qualifiers.

For the eight-minute, I had two numbers: 20 and 24. 20, of course one tray. And 24, a Steamer Pack. After the intros, the eating began and I stuck to my plan perfectly - to do 3 a minute. That'd be 24. For 15 or 16, I was on target. With 16, and then 17, I started getting too much in the mouth and not down. 18, same. 19, same. At that point the 10-9-8 began. Stuff in #20. Two chews. That's a tray! Stuff in #21. Mike calls time and my mouth is PACKED! I take a sip. Nowhere for it to go. That won't work. Just get it down. Slow. Slow. After a minute or maybe two I do actually get it down and clear. Ugh. But 21!

So that's that.

My mom got video of both contests. It's with my crappy $80 digital video camera but I'll see what's worth a damn and get that up.

And here is a slideshow of the photos: