My experience going head-to-head with the hot dog eating champ in the world!

I went head to head with Joey "Jaws" Chestnut in a hot dog eating contest. As some may or may not know, Chestnut is the world champion when it comes to the famous hot dog contest. On July 4, 2007, Chestnut beat the six-time defending hot dog eating contest champion Takeru Kobayashi during the 92 Annual Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Chestnut ate 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, which also set a world record. At this year’s contest, he defended his title by eating 59 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

Chestnut was at the Oil Kings game on Friday, October 10 for a team promotion. Members of the media were able to go head-to-head against the competitive eater, and I got a few pointers from the world champ himself in a pre-game interview.

“Anyone can eat one or two hotdogs really quickly then they start to think they’re full.” He said. “The trick is getting into a rhythm so you’re not thinking about being full. Just eat the hot dogs the same way every time. Don’t forget to breathe because if you do, you’ll be short of breath and you’ll panic, and you’ll feel full.”

Now came the moment. The announcer called out my name. The crowd roared. I took my place next to Chestnut. I was the only female competitor for the night. There were two guys from the Team 1260, one from ATB, Chestnut and myself. We had five minutes to eat as many hot dogs we can. Keep in mind these are the huge jumbo size hot dogs. My goal was to eat two in five minutes, without puking. After two and a half minutes in, I finished my first one. Chestnut was at like 13 I think! He would do two at a time and then dip his bread in the water and swallow it whole. I tried dipping little portions of my bread in the water and gagged like crazy.

After five minutes of eating, I managed to do two hot dogs; Chestnut ate 23!!! This was much harder than it sounds. I can eat two jumbo hot dogs easy. But when you’re forcing them down fast, it’s hard. One of the other competitors ate two as well, but he puked right after.In the end, this was a great experience. I loved Rexall’s hot dogs, but when I went to the Oilers home opener two nights later, I opted for a burger instead!

***Chestnut competed in a pizza-eating contest two nights later in New York… he ate 45 slices of pizza in 10 minutes!