Hot Dogs!

This past 4th of July weekend was, for the most part, uneventful for Emmy and I. We decided to just stay home and relax as everyone was saying that the weekend traffic for this holiday weekend was going to be very bad.

But staying at home on the 4th of July with not much to do pretty much means that I will end up channel surfing on the television. The worst part of it was that July 4th was a Monday... and that means that you get the normal boring weekday shows in the morning and afternoon.

And then I struck gold.

There it was... live on ESPN...

COMPETITIVE EATING!
For those of you who have not heard of this uh, sport... Competitive Eating (or sometimes referred to as Speed Eating) is a contest to see who can eat the most of one specific food item in a specific amount of time. How this ever got on ESPN is beyond me.

On this 4th of July, the specific food item at hand was... Hot Dogs!
This competition takes place every year at the Nathan's Hot Dog stand on New York's Coney Island. The time allotted for the contest is 12 minutes, and the record of most hot dogs (including the buns) eaten in that time is 53 and a half. 53.5 freakin hot dogs in 12 minutes!

Now I've seen some friends, uh I mean people, put down some serious food, but this is way, way over the top. You would expect the people in this competition to be huge men in the 300+ lb. category. But in fact, most of the competitors are average size looking men & women.

The scariest thing is that the reigning (and world record holder) champion for Competitive Hot Dog Eating is a 5'7 144 lb. Japanese man named Takeru Kobayashi. Needless to say, Kobayashi is very famous in Japan.

Before you laugh and think of how ridiculous this all is, consider this:

1) His average annual salary is around $150K - $200K.
2) As the reigning champion, you get a years supply of Nathan's Hot Dogs.
3) In his sport, he is likened to Michael Jordan & Tiger Woods.
4) The sport is legit... the International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has been around for 6 years.

Here are some fun facts:

* According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, the average American eats 70 hot dogs a year. Takeru Kobayashi ate 53½ hot dogs in 12 minutes.
* Hot dogs: 180 calories X 50½ = 9,090 calories
* Buns: 140 calories X 50½ = 7,070 calories
* Total calories: 16,160 (percentage of daily allowance: 708)
* Fat from hot dogs: 13 grams X 50½ = 656½ grams (percentage of daily allowance: 895)
* Fat from buns: 2½ grams of fat X 50½ = 126¼ (191.3 percent)
* Sodium: 450 milligrams X 50½ = 22¾ grams (percentage of daily allowance: 848)

What in the world!?