Groz-with-Gas-a-Thon Results - Two Records!

The 2007 Groz-with-Gas-a-Thon was a great success. The one day charity auction managed to raise over $100,000 for three local charities. I was honored to be a part of this event once again this year. I was on the docket of guests that included a superstar lineup of Seattle sports stars past and present. I think I was able to entertain everyone who was in attendance by putting myself through some serious pain and establishing pepper eating records, 1 Guinness World Record and 1 Major League Eating Record, that I am very proud of:

Guinness World Record Jalapeno Eating Results (1 minute):
26 Jalapenos (beats previous record of 16)

Habanero Pepper Eating Results (1 minute eating with no substances during and for 5 minutes following):
32 Habaneros (establishes new MLE record)

The jalapenos were first. I wanted to get that one out of the way. Ray the Bison Meduna was on hand once again this year to judge and validate the results, a very crucial ingredient to legitimize the record for Guinness. Ray is very gracious with his time and energy; he is truly an asset to our sport.



The jalapenos were all large; they had to be at least 3” in length to count for the record. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to find enough jalapenos large enough to qualify for the Guinness standards but I probably went through 15 pounds of peppers to pick out the 31 that I brought with me to the event. I had gone through a few practices with the peppers and the first couple of times I could not get more than 12 down. I was a little worried, I really had to concentrate on eating with a different style than I would normally in order to be able to swallow each pepper completely and independently before moving on to the next. The last practice I did before the event I was able to get down 21 in one minute. So, I was pleased with the end result of 26 in one minute, I think that record will be hard to beat (though I think it is doable).

Click Here to watch the entire video of the jalapeno eating

The Habanero record was the one I was really gearing up for. Once I got the jalapenos out of the way, I chugged a little milk and started to prepare my body for some intense pain. The habanero pepper is the hottest commercially sold pepper in America I believe (there are only one or two species hotter in the world). They pack a heat that builds on itself almost as like parasite, building momentum with each drop of saliva that is swallowed. I knew that every pepper I would eat during the one minute would exponentially intensify the post eating burn. I only did one practice with the habaneros to make sure that I was capable of swallowing them without liquids and to see if I could survive the 5 minutes of waiting without any substance to soften the pain. I ate 16 in my only practice.

When I starting chomping down on the peppers at the event, they were going down fast and I had so much adrenaline pumping that I was able to distract myself enough to not let the thought of slowing down enter my mind. As soon as the one minute was up and 32 were down, my body was in shock. My face swelled, I started sweating almost immediately, there were tears involuntarily streaming from my eyes, my nose was running continuously. My friend who is an EMT took my pulse about 2 minutes in to the 5 minutes and he announced that it had jumped up to 110 BPM (my normal pulse is around 55-60 BPM).



Those were the longest 300 seconds of my life, I wish I had the ability to slow down time like that at other times in my life when I actually wanted moments to last forever - each second was a battle. As soon as the 5 minutes ended and the worst was over and the record was mine - I started chugging milk and eating ice and candy and anything else to try deflate my head. I was able to talk about 15 minutes later. My taste buds and stomach are still soured four days later. I am very proud of the 32 peppers; hopefully I won't have to defend this record any time soon.



Click Here to watch the entire habanero eating video
Click Here to watch video of my interview with Groz-and-Gas after the eating
Click Here to view pictures from the event