My First (and Last) Eating Challenge
Yesterday was a hectic day. I spent pretty much all day in a waiting room. I even wrote about things you can do while waiting.
After leaving the waiting room, it was time to eat. I was pretty hungry. Luckily, I'm familiar with the area of Chicago where we were, so I decided to hit up Timothy O'Tooles, a pub with some very good food.
Did I mention how hungry I was? Turns out I was really hungry. I took The Big Timmy Challenge: a 1 pound burger with 5 slices of cheese, and 1 pound of fries, and 1 pound of onion rings. If I could complete the challenge, I would be the proud owner of a Timothy O'Tooles t-shirt.
I've never participated in an eating challenge, although I never missed an episode of "Man v. Food", and I know all about Kobayashi, Joey Chesnut and The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Competition.
According to WikiHow you aren't supposed to eat or drink before you competitively eat. I had that part covered, I didn't eat much of anything all day. They also advise against starving yourself, and they also think dunking your food in water is a bad idea.
That said, I just ate and ate some more.
First I hit the burger, I actually needed a knife and fork to go through the entire thing. I ate it so fast, my best guess would be to tell you that it tasted just fine. I immediately started working on the onion rings. I also ate those really fast. At this point, I was getting extremely full. The massive pile of fries was all that remained.
I separated the fries into edible piles/handfuls that I could eat all at once. It was about 20 minutes into the challenge and the fries were starting to get cold. That was what made it even more difficult. I started doing that Kobayashi shake to work down the remaining fries. I did it. Face red, tired and more full than I have been in a very long time.
There are a few eating challenges that you can get involved in right here in Rockford, and you might be able to make a bit of money. According to Eat Feats, last month Murphy's awarded $500 to the guy who could eat a 3 pound burger the fastest. I may never win a contest like that but I did receive a pretty sweet t-shirt...aaaand an awful stomachache.