The Bearcat Challenge

This is a non running post but still entertaining.

Background: Near the UC campus there is a piazza place, known by all UC students, named Adriaticos. While Adriaticos has many different pizza dishes, there is only one that keeps us all coming back, The Bearcat! The Bearcat is a rectangular shaped pizza with measurements of 18 inches wide by 24 inches wide. With 30 large square slices, according to the website, The Bearcat will feed 12 people.

Fast forward to Monday afternoon:

While sitting in out office two of my co-workers and I were talking about how hungry we were. the conversation went like this.

Todd: "I ordered a Bearcat yesterday, it was so good."
Tim: "Nice, that sounds so good right now, did you eat the whole thing."
Todd:"yeah right, I hardly even put a dent in it, there's no way anyone could eat the whole thing."
Tim: "You Pussy!"
Me:"I could eat the whole damn thing."
Todd:"no you couldn't"
Me: "easily"
Todd:"alright, lets do it, whats the bet?"
Me:"If I eat it all, you pay, if not I pay"
Tim: "I'll go in half on that to see him eat the whole thing."

Later that night Tim and Todd told our boss about it and he got pretty excited, we all talked about it the next day and decided that Wednesday night would work best. Around 5:30 today we placed the order. By 6:30 the beast of a pizza was sitting on my desk staring right back at me. I was given 1.5 hours to complete the task. My strategy was to try and eat it fast. I have heard that your stomach doesn't realize it is full until 20 minutes after it actually gets full. I figured I had a 30 minute window before the pain set in. The first 6 pieces went down with ease. I hadn't eaten all day in preparation, so I was very hungry. At the 10 slice mark I knew I was in trouble. I tried the bounce techniques I had seen on the Nathans hot dog eating contest, trying to push the pizza further into my stomach. At 12 slices I was falling of pace and was getting very very full. I hit the wall at slice 14 and began to have thoughts of a reversal (competitive eating talk for puking.) The clock was closing in one 1.5 hours and I had no shot at finishing the whole thing. I was able to stuff one more piece down the hatch, coming very close to losing it, but able to keep it down. That brought my total to 15 pieces, half of The Bearcat. Tim and Todd were both surprised that I was even able to eat half of it, so they let me keep my money. I sat at my desk in front of my trash can for about 30 minutes before deciding I could make the drive home without hurling everywhere.
I found out I couldn't eat The Bearcat, not because someone told me a couldn't, but because I tried it for myself and failed, spectacularly. When we ordered the pizza Tim asked the guy on the phone if anyone had ever eaten the whole thing by themselves, the guy said no one ever had and he thought it was impossible. I didn't prove him wrong. DNF at 15 pieces.

Needless to say I didn't run after that.