breaking myself

I have a large post about Wingbowl looming and this may turn into that post. There's an aweful lot going on that needs to get done in the next 36 days and now that Xmas is over it's pretty much the only thing (other than sex of course) that is constantly on my mind.

I havent posted too much about it but rest assured that I prepare in some way, EVERY day. I work out everyday now at the gym, and like when I trained for the Marathon 6 years ago, I have a constant limp, sometimes in both legs. My back hurts. My Achillies Hurts on my left side and the muscle makes a clicking noise when I walk down steps. I just got over a week of hamstring pain and my knees are more noisy than ever.

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The cool thing is that the WingBowl marks my first full year in Competitive Eating. I keep very specific charts of my food training, and I was able to compare this years training against last years, and I am relieved to say I'm way ahead in several undisclosed ways. It would have sucked balls if I had to start at the bottom. You can get better at this stuff...you just have to be careful at not getting fat.

For those of you unfamiliar with Competitve Eating, the WingBowl is the largest attended Eating event in the world. It's held every year in Philadelphia on the Friday before the SuperBowl at the Wachovia Center. The Wachovia Center holds 20,000 seats and this year it sold out in 24 hours. Think about that 20,000 people watching 30 men eating Chicken Wings for 30 minutes. Of course it's much more than that, as there is great pagentry and spectacle involved. Everyone is drunk. There are strippers. There are floats and costumes. All of this begins at about 6am.

The whole event is run by the Morning Radio Show on the local AM Sports Radio Station. You dont have to be a 'Pro' to try out in fact they prefer that you just be a local guy. Starting after Thanksgiving you can call the Radio station and propose a 'stunt'. On the air they will negotiate with you how much time they want you to eat your food in. Al and Angelo are pretty tough on the stunts and often make them double the qty or reduce the time. SURPRISINGLY, the people that call up to do their stunts are completely unaware if they can actually DO the stunt they are proposing....even more people will not practice it beforehand. If your stunt is accepted you are given a timeslot in about a week to come into the studio and do it on the air.

Since qualifying myself I listen to these stunts to get an idea what the competition is. They also post short videos of each eater that can be found here:

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/sports/special_packages/wingbow/

(some of the videos require Real Player to view)

They have my time listed on the page as 5minutes, but it was actually 3:34.

I find that I analyze everyones stunts and imagine how I would do it differently. Most of these people have set themselves up for failure. The people who fail to qualify often have the best videos to watch though.

This years format is slighly different in the prize structure. Only 5 out of town pro's will be allowed to compete. Unlike other years, they wont have to do a qualifying stunt. The five pros will be hand picked from the IFOCE. The remaining 20-25 eaters must be from the Arbitron Listening Area to be considered for Qualifying. The theme is 'Philly Versus the World'. I am being considered a local for this competition.

There will be an overall winner who will be given a Suzuki Grand Vitara. There will also be a Local Winner who will be given a Suzuki SX4. If a local person wins overall they will get BOTH cars.

So whats the big deal for me? There are only 3 pros that are ranked that live in the Philly Area. Humble Bob (who's video is currently not posted), Wing Kong (who is listed as Micah) and myself(who's name is mispelled). From looking at the disposition of the other locals who have qualified so far, the SX4 will likely go home with one of us three.

Wing Kong and I are closely matched. His chances are probably similar to my own. He's not the Man to beat though so I dont mind sharing my training info with him. I want him to do really well. I want him to get second place.

People who have an understanding of Competitive Eating would put Humble Bob as the front runner for the local bracket. He has had a phenominal year and has eaten DOUBLE of my final total in several contests this year. He's that good. He's rated as fifth in the world, and that might be an underestimation.

Can he be beaten? Yeah. Can I beat him? I'm going to try.

It's doubly hard because he is both a generous and caring person & an unflappable fierce competitor. He's always given me great advice on training and competing and offered understanding and encouragement at my failures.

It would be a great story if I did win, but I know that most of the Pro's would assume my totals were incorrect. I understand that, the WingBowl is infamous for questionable totals, and Bob should beat me 10 out of 10 competitions....but what I also remember is all the people...all of the people with biking experience who told me I could never ride a bicycle accross the country. People who said I couldnt run a marathon at 220lbs, or stay married, or be a good father, or have my own business. All of those people had very good reasons for their opinions. I listen to what they say and then fight to make it wrong. It's not easy, I'm very hard on myself.

Me? I'm a mess, but I have the support of my family and a bunch of friends who dont realize what I'm up against here. They love this whole thing and are just happy to go and cheer me on. I have this burning desire to win and to be the very last man standing on that stage, with a plastic crown on my head and a rubber chicken in my hand.

I know how crazy it sounds, yet I am so stubburn and ignorant I'm going to try anyway. I'm going to try to win, and I'm going to try everyday I wake up for the next 36 days. It's not going to be an accident.