Dog-ged pursuit of a dream

As I prepare for my competitive eating debut, I continue to make slow and steady improvement. (Unfortunately, since my hot-dog eating contest is just ten days, there's not much time left for gradual progress.)

I amped things up a little for yesterday's practice session: six dogs and buns. I downed them in 7:12 (and I had the last bite in my mouth at about 6:45, which I think is all that matters when the buzzer sounds in the real thing), practically the same time it took me to eat four in my first timed attempt. This time I finished four in less than four minutes, then really slowed down on the last two.

I also ate "jumbo" dogs, which will hopefully work like taking practice swings with a donut on your bat (mmm, donut), and the regular-sized dogs will seem really easy on game day. (Or maybe every brand of dog has a different definition of jumbo, and this had no effect at all.)

Regardless, I've realized that going through this process has finally made me a passing Hulkamaniac. I've always said my prayers, but struggled with the training and taking vitamins demandments. Thanks, brother, for not specifying what kind of training; now I'm hitting two out of three (three out of four if you include "believing in yourself," the Raven-Symone-showing-up-on-the-Cosby-Show of Hulk's demandments--that's a solid C!).

So anyway...I'm not expecting to win (I guess I don't believe in myself all the time). I think I've said it before--I'm not the best at speedy consumption, but I'd be great at endurance eating. Which is why my brother and I both love the concept behind the show Man vs. Food, and we're very upset that we didn't come up with the idea first.