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By ANWAR RICHARDSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 3, 2008

Updated: 05:04 pm

TAMPA – After failing to eat 66 hot dogs in 12 minutes, Takeru Kobayashi had the same reaction last year that more than 2 million people fought back.

He became nauseous.

Kobayashi could "only" stomach 63 hot dogs during Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, N.Y., before heaving what was in his mouth. As a result, Joey Chestnut set a new world record by engulfing 66 hot dogs, breaking Kobayashi's six-year consecutive championship streak.

Those two famous gluttons are among 20 competitors battling again this year at Coney Island, site of the original Nathan's, in what has become a freakish July Fourth tradition in many American households.
The food race will air live on ESPN at noon Friday.

"It's horribly gross," said ESPN's Paul Page, who is hosting the competition for a fourth consecutive year. "You'll hear it at least once during the show when I throw it to [reporter] Jimmy Dykes in the 'Spray Zone.'

"One of the first things somebody told me was to make sure you are more than 3 1/2 feet back from the front of the table, and they were right because with all that chomping, there is just kind of a mist that covers you."

There is nothing hazy about the professionalism or popularity of competitive eating, which is what the event is considered.

Nathan's contest is run by Major League Eating, a corporation that overseas professional eating events, and supervised by The International Federation of Competitive Eating.

Some of the national eating competitions MLE conducts are strawberry shortcake, pizza, rib, BBQ pork sandwich, fried asparagus, chicken wings, Krystal hamburgers and grilled cheese sandwiches contests, but today's event is its biggest.

According to ESPN, last year's telecast posted a 1.3 rating and had 1,632,000 viewers, the highest in the competition's four-year history on ESPN. Additionally, more than 45,000 spectators attended the event at Coney Island.

"This competition is the Masters of competitive eating," MLE spokesperson Richard Shea said. "This event has become a part of America's Fourth of July. It's like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

"I used to have competitions and practically pull people from out of the audience to compete. Now when we have different competitions, we have lots of people on standby hoping somebody does not qualify just so they can participate."

Friday's hot dog eating pageantry actually took months of preparation for the competitors, who do not solely rely on their bizarre ingestion abilities.

The majority of successful competitive eaters are not 400-pound mammoths, but slender eaters who routinely practice consuming food, coupled with exercise, to thrive.

"I will eat 55 or 60 hot dogs [to practice] … I get my body used to ingesting so many hot dogs," Chestnut said. "There are also times that I'm taking in too many calories and I'm gaining weight, so I have to keep practicing. It's a weird balance because you have to stay in somewhat healthy shape. I can tell when I'm gaining weight and starting to become unhealthy because my breathing is affected and I start sweating more and I slow down faster.

"You look at these 400-pound eaters who eat just as much as me and they run out of breath in two minutes."

Chestnut, who ashamedly admits he earned more than $100,000 eating last year, also constantly works on strengthening his eating muscles to retain his current No.1 MLE ranking.

"I'm pushing muscles everywhere from my jaw to my esophagus all the way to my abdomen. I'm trying to make them all work together," Chestnut said. "I feel like I have really good control of those muscles. Not only control, but they are strong."

The ravenous competitors not only learn how to stretch their stomach and strengthen eating muscles, but master a personal eating technique to become successful.

Although it may appear participants are just stuffing their mouths, some strategically eat the hot dog and bun together, scarf them separately, take swigs of water between bites, or dunk their dogs.

"I start with two hot dogs at a time and I try to get them and a bun down in 10 seconds," said competitive eater Pat Bertoletti, who ate 49 hot dogs during last year's competition. "As I'm feeding the hot dogs in, I use my left hand to feed me and my right hand to dunk them.

"Pretty much everybody dunks their hot dogs [into a cup of water]. I like the flavored liquids for dunking liquids because it can kind of get gross just dunking it in just water. I don't get grossed out, but that grosses me out."

If Kobayashi and Bertoletti can get grossed out, nobody's stomach is safe today.

IF YOU GO
Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest
WHERE: Coney Island, N.Y.
WHEN: Today at noon
TV: ESPN
PRIZE: $20,000
2007 WINNER: Joey Chestnut ate 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes last year, setting a new world record.

LOCAL HOTDOG EATING CONTEST
Dairy Inn Hot Dog Eating Contest
WHERE: 1201 9th N, St. Petersburg
WHEN: Children begin at 11:30 a.m., followed by the women and men's competition
PRIZE: $100 (all contestants receive free ice cream and coupon for a free haircut)
2007 WINNER: Men - R.J. Frasca (14 1/2 in 10 minutes); Women - Margee Murray (10 1/2 in 10 minutes)
CONTACT: (727) 822-6971

Reporter Anwar S. Richardson can be reached at (813) 259-8425 or arichardson@tampatrib.com