The Road to Nathan's is Here

The MLE competitive eating circuit is busy almost year round now, which is great to see; contests popping up almost weekly in regions throughout the United States. The prize money structure for contests in the past 12 months has seemed to be more evenly spread out between all paid spots, which has kept many eaters 1-25 involved and winning prize money. The huge top prize purse contests have been few and far between, which from a selfish perspective has been refreshing. Of course, I am not thrilled to have to settle for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place money all of the time, I want to win the big prize. I am straving for a victory, in fact. My last win on the circuit was almost a year ago at the Tempe, AZ Nathan's qualifier. I have not won a non-qualifier contest in 2.5 years when I won the Spike TV hard boiled egg contest in October, 2007 with 61 in 8 minutes. I have to get at least one non-qualifier win this year or no matter what, it will be a failure.

That being said, it's Nathan's season and it's time to win a qualifier. This is probably the most exciting time of the year in Competitive Eating for me. I am looking forward to each coming weekend with anticipation to see what numbers people are putting up this year. The culmination and build up to the 4th makes the final contest what it is. I myself think that my performance in Nathan's contests has in a large part shaped my career. I have won my last 4 qualifier attempts with totals of 22 ('06), 26.5 ('07), 24 ('08), and 28 ('09). And my totals in the finals have been 22, 23, 28, and 38 respectively. The trend is going up for me, last year was a leap forward in the finals and I know I am capbale of more.

My Nathan's qualifier schedule for this year will be Tempe, AZ on June 5, Charlotte, NC on June 19 (if I don't win in Tempe), and San Diego, CA on June 26 (if I fail to win in Tempe or NC). Let's get it on, the road to Nathan's!!

If you need some motivation, listen to my 2009 single, the Internet sensation and what was deemed by some who have no musical genre credibility as Electronic EMO - "Surf and Stillwell"