Kobayashi, Say Goodbye

Twenty-three year old Joey Chestnut, a part-time San Jose college student and construction project manager, set the new world record for hot dog eating at a Nathan’s qualifier event on Saturday in Tempe, Arizona. The performance guarantees Chestnut a spot in the upcoming Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest and the chance for a much-anticipated rematch against his biggest rival, Japan’s Takeru Kobayashi, the six-time world champion who previously held the world record with a performance at last year’s Coney Island event of 53 ¾ hotdogs, beating Chestnut in the competition by only one dog. Chestnut shattered that record on Saturday with 59 ½ hotdogs in twelve minutes.

Chestnut has his eye on the prize—the coveted Nathan’s Famous Yellow International Belt, the World Cup of competitive eating, which has been held by Japanese competitors for nearly a decade. He’s been training intensely for the past six weeks, using a method that incorporates periods of fasting and “hot dog runs,” in which Chestnut consumes as many hot dogs as possible in 12 minutes. During a typical week of training, Chestnut will complete two hot dog runs, preceded and followed by two days of fasting, and then one day of normal eating and plenty of vitamins and supplements throughout. He'll continue with that routine for the next four weeks leading up to Coney Island.

I’ve always thought I’d be a pretty good competitive eater. Not only do I love to eat, but it also seems like competitive eating and endurance sports require a similar training philosophy and race mindset. I don’t think I could stomach fifty hotdogs, but maybe a couple dozen pies. I did do a few Fourth of July pie-eating contests as a young girl growing up in the Ford. And I kicked butt. I could eat my way through those things like you wouldn’t believe. The biggest challenge was that you couldn’t use your hands, so I literally had to put my face in there and just go at it. Very messy. I always placed very well and brought home prizes of baseball tickets and CD’s. Maybe I do need to take a hiatus from this whole running and biking thing and give Chestnut and Kobayashi a real run for their money.