Funnel Cake afterthoughts

Originally I had only planned to be a spectator at the 1st ever world funnel cake eating championships at Great America, located in Santa Clara, California. I had previously submitted an entry form into the contest, but I was sure I wouldn't get in (and sure enough I didn't.... at first). Approximately 2-3 days prior to the contest, Ryan Nerz contacts me and asks me if I wanted to be a contestant. So, I said sure why not? It wouldn't hurt to eat amongst some of the world's greatest competitive eaters today. Mind you, I have never officially participated in a contest before, so this would've been my first. How many fans out there can say that they competed with eaters such as Joey Chestnut, Pat Bertoletti, Nate Biller, Kevin Ross, and etc? I can now say I have.

I haven't had funnel cake in about 4-5 years and had originally planned to do one trial run before the big day. However, with the last San Jose Sharks home game and other prior commitments, I couldn't fit a trial in. So, come saturday, I was just going to wing it. If memory served me correctly, I remembered funnel cake as this: fried piece of dough with either powdered sugar or fruit topping on it.

I was really nervous going in, because I was the only female in it, but everyone was really supportive and gave me some last minute advice before my first competition in the MLE/IFOCE. For my introduction, Ryan and I could not come up with a nickname for me, so I believe we just stuck with the whole "chicks dig competitive eaters" moniker and I threw out some souvenir tank tops (see previous posting "hot off the press") into the crowd as I walked out towards my end of the table. I was situated between and fellow amateur, Khoa Nguyen and Kevin "007" Ross.

The competition starts and I just start grabbing the softer portions of the funnel cake because I assumed it would be easier to swallow. It was, until all the grease and sweet flavoring got to me. I honestly wanted to puke halfway into the contest, but I couldn't do that in my "debut". I drank a lot of water in hopes it would go down easier, and it did. I had to switch gears and go for the smaller crispier parts because those had less grease buildup and flavor. I kept eating and eating until time was up. The roof of my mouth was cut up pretty bad, but it was well worth the experience. I thought I would have finished in last place, but to my surprise, I actually beat someone. I was a happy camper :) . Listed below are the official results I had pulled from the IFOCE website.

Joey Chestnut 5.44 pounds
Pat Bertoletti 4.78 pound
Mr. Humble 4.12 pounds
Erik the Red 3.56 lbs
Double O Kevin 2.82lbs
Nasty Nate took 2.63 lbs
Kirbs 1.24 lbs
Jason Beals .97 lbs
Lily Pham .61 lbs
Khoa Nguyen .33 lbs.

I will see you all at the Stockton Asparagus Festivel in 2 weeks!