masque13
is one Smokin' Farker
- Joined
- May 19, 2014
- Location
- Somerset...
boy oh boy......another comp and another lesson learned this past weekend.
we went to Munfordville, KY to cook in the Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Contest and were really fired up because it was going to be our last event of the year and we felt things were starting to come together....in other words, we felt we were going to perform well.
beautiful weather, no rain (thank God), got a little cold on Friday night, but we managed. The cook had gone perfectly, we were hitting all of our marks.
We even felt good about only being about 75 yards from the turn in station.
Chicken is up, and we get in in the box and turned in early to allow plenty of time to move onto ribs.
about 18 minutes out on turn in, we check on how the glaze is setting on the ribs and it didn't suit us. so we took some extra time to allow it to set. when we got them out, we had roughly 8 minutes and all I can say is that we just simply didn't move fast enough.
by the time we got the box ready and I was on my way the KCBS rep screamed out "you got 14 seconds".....I was about 60 yards away and panicked. I took off on a dead sprint. I'm 45 years old, overweight and have not sprinted in years.....lol Anyway, to my surprise my legs reacted in a positive way and I was trucking across the grass.
The whole time I'm sprinting I am thinking about the upcoming sidewalk and the fact I dont want to trip on it......well I didn't, but I also didn't slow down enough to allow myself to make the near 90 degree turn up the 40 foot sidewalk to the turn in station. I slammed into the railing, lost my balance and like a NFL Wide Receiver who has been tripped up ten yards away from the goal line, I begin to stumble all the way up the ramp. I got within 8 feet of the table and took the hardest fall I've had since I was kid..... sunglasses, hat, phone and most importantly, rib box all went flying across the concrete.
I was hurting, in more ways than one. I want to thank all of the local folks because they were incredible in trying to help me, because I couldn't walk. Even today, I still can't walk. I can barely put any weight at all on my left knee. I have not been to the dr. yet because I have a $5000 deductible....so I am going to give it a few days before I go the medical route.
needless to say, me and my teammate were bummed,.......no ribs. my partner was worried about me and wanted to get me out of there but I knew our meat was good so I begged him to finish the pork and brisket box. and he did.
I spent the rest of the day sitting in my gravity chair popping ibuprofen and icing my knee.
the amazing thing is that my belief that we had a good cook was correct. We had our highest chicken score yet, and we got a 10 place call in pork and 7th place call in brisket and won back $125 to help cover some expenses.
Afterwards, I was looking up some stuff and if had managed to not fall with the ribs and given us the lowest score we've ever gotten in ribs, we would have finished in the top 10 overall....if we could have earned closer to what we normally score then we would have finished in the top 6....It's real cool to know how close we were, but also very depressing to know that it didn't happen because of such a colossal mistake.
it's very depressing when I consider that we both felt our ribs were the best thing we had that day......so I guess we will never know what would have happened.
the lessons we learned from this whole situation, both bad and good are too numerous to list in this post.....overall we had a great time and I am trying to not let the mishap with the ribs be too discouraging. I'm trying to focus on the fact we got two calls at the event and had a good cook.
I just wish I could relive those last five minutes with the ribs.....lol. but I am sure we all wish that at some point.
we went to Munfordville, KY to cook in the Big Buffalo Crossing BBQ Contest and were really fired up because it was going to be our last event of the year and we felt things were starting to come together....in other words, we felt we were going to perform well.
beautiful weather, no rain (thank God), got a little cold on Friday night, but we managed. The cook had gone perfectly, we were hitting all of our marks.
We even felt good about only being about 75 yards from the turn in station.
Chicken is up, and we get in in the box and turned in early to allow plenty of time to move onto ribs.
about 18 minutes out on turn in, we check on how the glaze is setting on the ribs and it didn't suit us. so we took some extra time to allow it to set. when we got them out, we had roughly 8 minutes and all I can say is that we just simply didn't move fast enough.
by the time we got the box ready and I was on my way the KCBS rep screamed out "you got 14 seconds".....I was about 60 yards away and panicked. I took off on a dead sprint. I'm 45 years old, overweight and have not sprinted in years.....lol Anyway, to my surprise my legs reacted in a positive way and I was trucking across the grass.
The whole time I'm sprinting I am thinking about the upcoming sidewalk and the fact I dont want to trip on it......well I didn't, but I also didn't slow down enough to allow myself to make the near 90 degree turn up the 40 foot sidewalk to the turn in station. I slammed into the railing, lost my balance and like a NFL Wide Receiver who has been tripped up ten yards away from the goal line, I begin to stumble all the way up the ramp. I got within 8 feet of the table and took the hardest fall I've had since I was kid..... sunglasses, hat, phone and most importantly, rib box all went flying across the concrete.
I was hurting, in more ways than one. I want to thank all of the local folks because they were incredible in trying to help me, because I couldn't walk. Even today, I still can't walk. I can barely put any weight at all on my left knee. I have not been to the dr. yet because I have a $5000 deductible....so I am going to give it a few days before I go the medical route.
needless to say, me and my teammate were bummed,.......no ribs. my partner was worried about me and wanted to get me out of there but I knew our meat was good so I begged him to finish the pork and brisket box. and he did.
I spent the rest of the day sitting in my gravity chair popping ibuprofen and icing my knee.
the amazing thing is that my belief that we had a good cook was correct. We had our highest chicken score yet, and we got a 10 place call in pork and 7th place call in brisket and won back $125 to help cover some expenses.
Afterwards, I was looking up some stuff and if had managed to not fall with the ribs and given us the lowest score we've ever gotten in ribs, we would have finished in the top 10 overall....if we could have earned closer to what we normally score then we would have finished in the top 6....It's real cool to know how close we were, but also very depressing to know that it didn't happen because of such a colossal mistake.
it's very depressing when I consider that we both felt our ribs were the best thing we had that day......so I guess we will never know what would have happened.
the lessons we learned from this whole situation, both bad and good are too numerous to list in this post.....overall we had a great time and I am trying to not let the mishap with the ribs be too discouraging. I'm trying to focus on the fact we got two calls at the event and had a good cook.
I just wish I could relive those last five minutes with the ribs.....lol. but I am sure we all wish that at some point.
