Burrito-eating contest: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Today, Eric J.S. Townsend tried to eat his way into burrito immortality. And win a custom motorcycle and burritos for life at Moe's along the way.
But before he could taste glory, he had to taste (and finish) four burritos faster than his two opponents, who also qualified in prelim rounds. And we aren't just talking about any old burrito -- we're talking four Joey Bag Of Donuts burritos, filled with rice, beans, cheese, salsa and ground beef, each roughly the size of a 20 ounce soda and weighing in at 29 grams of fat and 1,121 calories per burrito. (Quick math: Four burritos = 116 grams of fat and 4,484 calories. Daily recommended intake: 50-80 grams of fat and 2,500 calories.)
The Competitors
Name: James Gaillard
Vital stats: 22, from Asheville and attending UNCG
How he got here: He ate three burritos in 4 minutes, 19 seconds.
Strategy: "Eat fast. That's pretty much it. And make use of water."
Name: Julian Shores
Vital stats: 32, from Winston-Salem
How he got here: He ate three burritos in six and a half minutes.
Strategy: "Just eat as fast as I can and chew as fast as I can, and drink as much water as I can, I guess."
Name: Eric J.S. Townsend
Vital stats: Intrepid News & Record reporter
How he got here: He ate three burritos in less than six minutes.
Advantages: Eric has genetics going for him -- his cousin won a chicken-eating contest a couple weeks ago. Eric also boasts that he once ate 63 chicken nuggets in an hour.
Strategy: Eric had yogurt and a breakfast bar for breakfast and went to the gym before the competition. "I didn't train hard enough," he said, saying he read online that he should have been drinking a gallon of water in 2 minutes to stretch out his stomach. "I'm not gonna think about what I'm throwing down my throat."
The Contest
Competitors and fans started gathering well before the 3 p.m. contest time.
Eric's two competitors and their fans:
Eric's fans (also known as seemingly half the newsroom):
Rumors ran rampant -- someone heard that a guy in Albany ate three burritos in 2 minutes, 44 seconds -- and he would be in the same region Eric and the others were competing in. (There would be five regional winners at the national level -- our region runs up the coast to New York. The best time in the region would advance to Atlanta.)
Eric, maestro of burrito-eating, tells his adoring fans, "You're gonna see a side of me you never knew existed."
As 3 p.m. comes and goes, we find out that we have to wait on the EMS workers to arrive -- yes, this contest requires that EMS be there, in case a bean gets stuck up a nose, perhaps?
At 3:10, EMS arrives (with an oxygen tank in tow):
The burritos are brought out:
At 3:20, the contest finally starts!
James (middle) and Julian (right) pull ahead of Eric, and he decides to give the standing approach a try.
Five minutes in, just as James closes in on a win, a rather, err, explosive problem takes him out of competition. (While a bucket was provided, it was, sadly, not used. A worker came out with a towel to cover James' entry so as to not disturb the other contestants, who kept chowing down.)
Even so, Eric knows when he's beaten and he slows down to savor the burritos. At one point, he exhorts Julian, who is nearly done, "Dude, c'mon, hurry up!"
At 3:27, it's over, and Julian Shores, covered in rice and beans and cheese, is the official winner with a time of 6:17:31.
Eric ended the competition with a little more than a burrito to go.
Eric said after the competition that he had a sense he wasn't going to win. "There's no way I would have gotten four down."
Not to worry. "You were the classiest eater," said Janet Brindle Reddick, a News & Record employee.
Overall, Eric kept a positive attitude. "It was a free lunch. It was actually more like three free lunches."
I'll upload the video later tonight.
Next week: Eric compares the benefits of Alka Seltzer, Tums and Pepto Bismol.
Comments (6)
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Man, those are BIG burritos. Can't blame James for the uh explosion. The thought of eating 4 of them makes me belch.
...'scuse me!
Posted on August 13, 2006 7:07 PM
Yeah, I get sick just thinking about trying to eat four of those burritos! I don't think I could eat *one* in an hour! That anyone could is amazing.
Posted on August 13, 2006 8:44 PM
Thanks for the write-up, Mel! Excellent coverage! I'll be back on '07 in Moe's does this again... with all new strategies for burrito-eating success!
Posted on August 14, 2006 8:05 PM
Just browsing through. I was in the St Louis Regional. I managed to get the 3 burritos down in 3:30. Another guy in the regional got his 3 down in 2:40, I saw it, unbelieveable. In the regional he smoked us all with a 4:11 time on all 4. I contend that I might have had a better chance if the burritos weren't so dry.
Posted on August 18, 2006 2:08 AM
Four burritos in 4:11? I think I would have to see that to believe it! Amazing!
Posted on August 18, 2006 3:13 PM
Hi, I was Eric Townsend's roomie during his triumphant McNugget Victory. It is truly a sad day when he can't pull out the win, and shows that he must be getting old. Suzy, I lived with him last time, and I do not envy you one bit right now! At least I didn't have to share a bed with him!
Posted on September 7, 2006 2:03 AM