My 4th of July

For the past two years I have started my own tradition for how I celebrate the Independence Day, it's the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Competition. I got up at 8 am (thanks to the sun that shines directly on my face) and turn on ESPN to see some of the finest athletes the world has to offer in the sport of competitive eating (yes it is a sport, i was told numerous times by the announcers).

It was an exceptionally hot and muggy day in New York City which many thought might hurt the athletes, but they were called up one my one with ESPN showing their stats. Stats for eaters are what kind of food they excel at eating the most of. I saw one guy who ate 5 1/2 lbs of corned beef and cabbage, one guy that holds the record for ice cream, another that had the record for cake. As you can see they truly had assembled the giants of the sport for this, the most recognized championship in the world of competitive eating.

The event mainly focused on the two superstars of the sport: the up and coming rookie eater Joey Chestnut and the man, the myth, the legend of hot dog eating Kobayashi...the 5 time champion and record holder going into the event.

Chestnut got out to an early lead, and led the record holder early on. This led to the announcers giving some great quotes like: "What a man! He represents the American Eating Class!" or "If Chestnut hold on he can change the course of the nation!" Yes they really did say that by eating hot dogs it could change the course of the nation. For a minute I thought I was listening to Rex Hudler. In the end of course, Kobayashi was able to come back and go ahead of Chestnut.



I think losing was pretty devastating to Chestnut who had been practicing for weeks by eating 40 hot dogs at least once a week. I think he is one to watch in the years to come. We must take back the championship from Japan! This is America, hot dogs are the crap food that we eat and we need to show it! Next year i want to see someone go for 60 hot dogs and shatter Kobayashi's new record of 53 1/4. Oh well I guess I'll have to wait til July 4, 2007.... I hate waiting. Well at least I don't feel as bad as Chestnut does in this picture.