Taking on the 7-Eleven's Big Bite Hotdog Eating Challenge!

I've always been a competent eater. In fact my family calls me "The Captain" because during the dying minutes of the game (massive dinner) when all seems lost (as in money down the drain because we can't finish the food), I pull out all the stops and literally eat the competition. Of course, that's always been a private thing. I've never really had a chance to join a formal competition so I'm not sure I'm any good at it. Truth is, aside from a couple of eating relays back in high school which I lost both times despite my best efforts (definitely not my fault, had incompetent teammates--well 1 in particular), I've never really had the chance to join one.

A few years ago Don Henrico had this pizza eating contest, but it didn't really appeal to me. To be quite frank, I don't like pizza all that much--just glorified bread in my opinion (of course, I've been known to change my mind). So to make the long story short, here I am in my midlife and haven't really done anything to distinguish myself... enter last Saturday!

You read that right! 7-Eleven just launched their 1st Big Bite Hotdog Eating Challenge.

Wow! Hotdog! Now that's something I can eat. And 7-Eleven''s BigBite Hotdog are not bad at all!

Yummy! Oh, but don't worry, you won't have to eat all of those. To qualify, all you need to do is eat 5 hotdogs including their buns not necessarily together at the fastest possible time. (Read the mechanics.) Top 20 goes to the semifinals! Time to beat as of July 5 is 2:58 mins. to enter the top 20, and 2:06 mins. to be no. 1. (You should also check out the leader board periodically).

ll you have to do is purchase a this box which contains 5 Jumbo Hotdog Sandwiches of a variant of your choice and 946mL of Big Gulp for P150 (you don't have to finish the drink, just the hotdogs) . The fastest eater gets to participate in the main event on August 29 at the Trinoma for a chance totake home P500,000!

Elimination round is from June 26 to August 15, 2009 at any 7-Eleven store. You can make your attempts as often as you want during Fridays 12nn to 7pm and Saturdays 10 to 5pm. Oh, and make sure you bring your friends so you have people cheering for you.

So the question is, is it really doable? 5 dogs in 2 mins.? I wasn't so sure, and I'm sure a lot of you are skeptical. So they actually flew in a competitive eating champ to give it a go.

That's the champ right in the middle, Tom "The Goose" Gilbert who downed 10 hotdogs in 3:20 mins. 10 ladies and gentlemen! Meaning he could easily do 5 in plenty under 2mins. So yes, our current no. 1 can be beaten, and can be beaten by a large margin at that.

So the question now is, do I go for it? Am I ready for fame and fortune? Am I willing to risk humiliation and hardwork? Will I finally overcome years of ignominy and obscurity? Will I carry my title "The Captain" to national fame?

In the immortal words of one Barrack Hussein Obama I respond: "Yes, I can!"

You wanna join to? Let me leave you a clip of Manny Paksiw's training for this very event under the tutelage of Freddie Roots: