Hot Dog Eating

The finals of the Chow Down for Charity Hotdog Eating Contest were held at Steve's Snappin' Dogs. These contests benefited the Colorado Aids Walk and Project Angel Heart -- two great causes and the contests were a bunch of fun too.

There were four qualifiers held every other week since June 1. The top two eaters from each qualifier advanced to the finals. Of the 8 of us that qualified there were two no-shows at the finals but Steve had some reserves waiting to hop in.

There was a great turnout of spectators and press. Steve & Mike did an incredible job with all of this. This will be big soon.

I'll have more photos later because T-bonz's view of the action was obstructed by people:

What T-bonz could see. That's me between the girl and the backwards-cap-guy.

So we were introduced and we all got set at the table, and a plate of 16 hot dogs were in front of each competitor. The final contest was, just as the qualifiers were, picnic style eating. You couldn't dunk and you couldn't separate the hot dog and bun. For the 3-minute qualifier I went with a bite-swig plan. I knew doing that for the 8 minute final would not be smart because I'd fill up on liquid so for the finals I went with the ketchup-squeeze method. Dress each with ketchup and squeeze the piss out of each hot dog and bun as I ate them. Such that the ketchup would serve sort of as a good lubricant. But good lubricants are hard to find. It's not right to put ketchup on a hot dog but between ketchup and mustard the milder choice is the ketchup. I tried it some before the finals, and it worked, so it was a go.

The countdown from 10 started, and we were off. I started out well -- getting two down in under a minute. Good start, and my pre-contest predictions for myself looked good. I normally set a minimum-I-sure-as-hell-should-hit, an expected-for-me-to-hit, a number-I-could-hit, and the number-it-would-take-to-win. Mine were 8, 10, 12, 14. I try not to count when eating - I try to just eat and what happens, well, happens. I listen for the emcee updates and go from there.

Continuing on, numbers 1 and 2 happened but then things didn't happen. In the end, I finished with 8. Going in I didn't think Philip or Mike would be able to maintain 8 minutes, but they did so I have to congratulate them. Philip gets an automatic bye next year.

Here's my plate at the end. Not the plate in the foreground but one behind that, next to the overturned bottle:

As for me, my 8 was the minimum I thought I'd get. I ate like a little byotch but it was all fun, good times for the charities, and a good show for the crowd so it's all good.

Results

Phil Soderborg - 13
Mike McAvoy - 12.5
David Ruskjer - 10
Donavon Busta - 9
Andrew "A-Bomb" Lane - 8
San Wong - 7
John Spivey - 6
Ron Bolseth - 5