Sport Eating-4th of July

Just got back from the 4th of July festivities with family.......

My brother did a nice slow smoked brisket.... nice!

Gave me a chunk to take home.....Chopped brisket with an egg on top for breakfast tomorrow sounds good......

So...... just as we were getting our meal on..... guess what comes on the TV......

Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest !!!

Got to watch the ESPN coverage of San Jose's Joey Chestnut win his 7th straight Championship......eating 69 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

OK.... was not ready for that.......I was just surprised on the mixed emotions that I had..... surprised cause I never thought I would give it 2 seconds worth of thought.....

..... I have nothing against the dude..... he gets paid for his "talent"...... he is a paid quantity/speed eater..... lucky????

At first I was amazed at such a "violent" act..... as I was eating my 2.5oz of brisket with some spinach (bro did good....was on point)

Than I thought..... I like hot dogs..... than after he ate about 15 or 30..... I was pretty repulsed....... than I thought, this is exactly polar opposite to what I've been working for these last 4 years......

In the end..... no big deal..... I enjoyed my 4th of July meal..... and so did he (I think)..... I'm just glad he can eat 68.5 more hot dogs than me !!!!

The best part..... I lost any desire I had for a hot dog !!!!

And I guess eating is a "sport" ????

frisco

I am always repulsed by any sort of eating contest like this one.  I can't imagine what kind of mindset is required to WANT to eat as much as one can in such a short amount of time.  And wouldn't you eventually develop health problems as a result of eating some of the crap those guys eat?  The mind boggles.

Mmmm, brisket!  Now that sounds yummy!

I don't eat hotdogs any more.  Pink slime is repulsive.  Yes I know not all hotdogs have that crap in them, but **** better safe than sorry.  Actually, revolting may be the better term here. 

I don't think they do enjoy it. The point isn't the eating. It's like doing something like Race Across America where people bike for 12-14 days straight with 2-4 hours of sleep a night. They are hallucinating by the end and it takes a big toll on their fitness. They don't do it because the experience is fun. They do it because training is fun and because being able to say "I did that!" is rewarding.

As for the health issues, they barf most of the food back up. Plus they don't eat like that every day. 

Again, it's not about the eating. Or the food.

BTW, this year's RAAM just finished with a new record... Christian Strasser of Austria did 3,000 miles in 7 days 22 hours 11 minutes... 6 total hours of sleep in that time.  2nd place finisher was about 22 hours behind him.

Amazing.

I think they are amazingly insane.  Oh well, to each his own, I guess. I just don't see the appeal of doing something sleep deprived. For me, it's all about the experience. If you can't remember the experience because you were hallucinating, grumpy, exhausted, then what's the point?

My friends and I were discussing this just yesterday after our group bike ride. We went out to eat after and we all agreed that doing RAAM was nuts.

But some of them said running a double marathon was nuts. That doesn't seem nuts to me. It only takes about 10-12 hours and I like to run. I can see doing that some day.

Some said doing an Ultraman was nuts. Again, I don't think that event is nuts. You get to sleep in a real bed each night and it only takes 3 days. I might do it some day if I had the time to train for it and wasn't injured.

One guy said doing an Ironman was nuts. But he's done a bunch of them so he was only joking. We all thought doing an IM wasn't nuts. Does that make us nuts? It probably makes us nuts.

Most of us draw the "Nuts" line just north of ourselves :)

I used to think riding 100 miles was pretty nuts - but now I do it a couple times a month - no big deal.  I think the "extreme sports" folks get "addicted" to pushing themselves to their limits and beyond.  There's a payoff there that many of us can't understand, or it doesn't push the right buttons.

Whatever you think about sanity levels, the accomplishment is pretty amazing, even if appalling in some ways.

The appalling part is that the person I know who did last year totally killed her endurance. She is JUST getting it back now a year later. And she trained really well for it. She did all the right things. I really don't know what she could have done differently. Destroying your body for two weeks of glory is, IMO, crazy.

For me, I think that doing something for 6-8 hours that pushes me physically is fun. Once you get past that, it starts to get dicey. I'm up for single time events that go longer as long as I'm not going longer in training. But I have to be done by midnight. That's my big cutoff. If I'm not in my bed at the end of the day, I'm not doing it.

When I trained for my ironman, I did 80-100 mile bike rides most weekend. I did 2 hour runs. I did 2-3 mile swims so 1.5-2 hours. That is not crazy IMO and most people wouldn't think it was if you took the physical part out of it.

When you say "I went for an 80 mile bike ride today" people look at you like you're insane. But people go the beach or an amusement park for all day on Sat. It's the same thing, IMO. It's the same commitment of time and energy. (And there are no crowds to fight on a bike ride and it doesn't cost $50-100 for a ticket. )

And going for a swim followed by a run on Sunday takes no more time than going to the movies and maybe out to eat after. Again, not really a crazy commitment of time and not of energy if you build up to it.

But doing anything for 36 hours straight is crazy. Be it a dance marathon or walking across America or a poker tournament. I'm not saying people shouldn't do it just because it's crazy. I'm just saying that there isn't any way you can argue it isn't crazy if you are going to be objective about it.

I'm totally with you and your reasoning... I have a 200k coming up, so that'll be around 8-10 hours.  I think I'll have plenty of challenge on my hands trying to get faster at races of that length or less - rather than just going longer, I'd rather concentrate on going faster.

Maybe it's because I"m older. I might be more up for the sleep depravation if I was 20. LOL

I have to get faster. I want to do a Double Century and I can't do it and make the cut offs. So this is about coming back from injury. Next year will be about going faster. Lots of short course work. Lots of speed work. Nothing longer than a half-ironman. We'll see if it works!