KIng Of The Road

I was helping my mom clear out her storage locker when I found a box of my past glories..  

Anyone remember Final Lap?  It was the first ever multi-player arcade racing game, and during freshman year, if we weren't sleeping or eating between classes, we were usually down in the Student Union Building playing either NBA Jam or this.  Our arcade had 4 machines hooked up, meaning up to 8 players could race head-to-head.

That year, the arcade held a tournament - single elimination, top 2 finishers of each race moving on to the next round, until only 8 racers remained. Pro athletes often talk about when "being in the zone" how everything seems to slow down around them, they can anticipate their opponents a split second quicker, and the hoop looks that much bigger.. Long story short, that day, I was in the zone.  It felt like slow-motion going through that last chicane, my heart pounding with excitement, and everyone cheering and patting me on the back as I crossed the finish line.  I felt like Ayrton Senna winning the F1 World Championship.

As I received my trophy and gazed upon the crowd though, my moment of triumph came to a crashing halt, so to speak, as I realized there would be no champagne spraying, no endorsement deals, and my admiring fans were in fact, not a bevy of beautiful women waiting to throw themselves at a winning race car driver, but rather, a bunch of geeky guys who spent way too much time in a dark, noisy room playing video games..