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Tuesday, August 14, 2007 #51 in the worldokay this is hilarious. i’m a little late finding this out, but it turns out for a brief period of time, i was a ranked eater in the IFOCE world rankings. alas, in a matter of days they made a revision, adding a legitimately ranked eater and shifted everyone around, which left me off the revised rankings. my snub even got some sarcastic mention on the eatfeats message board, not once but also a second time when another ranked eater was removed. good to know my name is already recognized in the eating world. i’ll just have to go prove myself the next time out there (assuming there is one)! Sunday, June 24, 2007 time to start burning some caloriesi met two of my goals in my first-ever eating competition: 1) i did not come in last unfortunately, i did not win the qualifier, but i think i tied for third. i ate the same number as the announced 3rd place winner - the judge didn’t realize how many i ate until after he got the actual results. there were only 7 competitors, but the guy who i tied for 3rd is also the 33rd ranked eater in the ifoce rankings (andrew ’skinnyboy’ lane). the 27th ranked eater came in 2nd (jason ‘herbivore’ erb) and the #8 (rich ‘the locust’ lefevre) won the qualifier with ‘34′ hot dogs. so to be close to the same level with minimal training as some of the ranked and well-traveled folks was awesome. i put the quotes in cuz the actual number of hots dogs eaten was lower - they had the wrong type of hotdog (a jumbo style that’s eqivalent to probably 1.5 of the normal competitive hot dog) so that threw me off a bit. i was used to plowing through 8-10 normal sized HDBs no problem, but with these big boys i got to 6 and was already feeling it. the winner ate 21, 2nd had 9, and me and 3rd place had 8. the judge announced the final totals as 34, 16, 14, but i think he pulled those numbers out of nowhere just to make the numbers sound more accurate relative to previous competitions. which means i ate the equivalent of about 12-15 regulation hot dogs, but it’s hard to guage accurately since the size changes a lot of factors. i had a nice run in the early going, with a pretty good pace ahead or in line with the ranked folks (except the top guy, rich lefevre, who was in a league of his own). the mc gave me a little love early on while i was on my early roll. unfortunately i hit my wall after 8 and basically coudn’t eat for the last 3 minutes. while i still had a lot of time, i could definitely feel my stomach telling me not to eat anymore, or else it was all coming back out. some other nice highlights:
thanks to eping for taking pics of the event and to those who came by to watch on a beautiful saturday. while it’s obviously not the most healthy thing to be doing, i had such an enjoyable experience that i might do something similar again in the future. which means i’ll really need to hit the gym more often. Tuesday, June 19, 2007 watch out kobayashiif anyone’s interested in seeing me do my best kobayashi impression: You are entered in the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest Qualifier in San Francisco, CA on Saturday, June 23. Arrive by 11:00am
Cinemark Theatres - Century 20 1901 Junipero Serra Blvd. Daly City, CA 94015
The winner of this event will earn a chance to compete in the July 4th International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. The winner is also offered a year’s supply of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs. Hot Dog winnings must be picked up at the contest location on the date of the contest.
You must be at least 18 to compete.
i wish i had attempted this over 5 years ago when my eating capacity was greater and the competition wasn’t as fierce. the earlier qualifiers had people winning in the 30-40 hot dog (plus buns) range, and joey chestnut set a record with 59 1/2 hot dogs in 12 minutes at the tempe, az qualifier. needless to say, i’m not at those levels…i’ve set my goal at 15. i did a trial run and put down 10 hot dogs in less than 5 minutes…but after 12 i was hurting pretty bad. the competition gives you 12 minutes, but capacity is more of an issue than speed. i could have possibly eaten a couple more (i still had over 6 minutes left in my trial), but i figured if i was going to kill myself eating hot dogs, better to do so in front of a live crowd than in the privacy of my own home. anyways, it should be an interesting, albeit painful, experience to say the least. if nothing else, i get to eat for free that day. Saturday, June 02, 2007 the city life
back on the bench again so time for an update. i should write the obligatory ‘i haven’t updated in ages/i hardly update anymore’ spiel, but that has to be the most common opening line to xanga posts so i will avoid doing so (even though i indirectly already have for this post). but since i’m back at home doing what i do best (i.e. nothing), i might as well provide my dwindling number of readers with an update. an update is in order rather some than some introspective rant since a few rather significant events have occurred in the last 2 months. mainly, i bought a place and moved up to san francisco. i’ve been up in the city for just over a month and it’s been hectic but great. as always, timing has been less than perfect - just moving in is tiresome enough, but i’ve also been busier than normal with work and travel obligations. combine this with my attempts to buy new furniture and move all my belongings from 40 minutes away and i’m barely left with any time to explore what the city has to offer. but hopefully things are calming down to the point where i can get a sense of my surroundings and finally start to settle in. with the minimally required furniture in place, i went ahead and had a little housewarming shindig this past saturday. surprisingly it’s the first time i’ve hosted a true housewarming event or anything remotely close to a weekend house party. needless to say i was ill-prepared for a couple of things - here’s a list of things to remember for next time (or for anyone else about to throw a house party):
despite the heat and resulting mess afterwards, i had a great time, and hopefully everyone else did as well. one of the strange things was that half the people that showed i didn’t even know…which can be a good thing or bad thing. but everyone i met was very friendly and i’ve already cleaned up my place with no lingering damage or issues. so there begins my new life in the city. i will still be heading down to the south bay often since so many people i know are down there, but hopefully i can save a little gas mileage on the weekends and take better advantage of what san francisco has to offer. and for anyone who comes up to sf or is already in the city, feel free to stop by for a drink or just to say hi anytime. more of my usual self-aggrandizement on my next post. |
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