This is a challenge that I successfully completed last week. As a general rule, I don’t go back to places to do challenges there were extremely hard. To recap, its a big burger, fries and salad. The challenge is to do it in less than 30 minutes. I did it in 29 minutes and was in a lot of pain.
So why have I gone back so soon? I had a couple of friends that thought they might be in with a chance of doing it. I wasn’t actually going to try the burger again as it was painful but figured it’d be funny watching my friends fail and then finishing mine. I didn’t train last time and so with training, it surely must be easier.
Training for this event, wasn’t the usual stretching the stomach with cucumbers the day before. I decided to go out on the beer. I had 9 pints or so and 2 large kebabs. It may have been a tactically error but I didn’t eat the kebabs until about 1am. The stomach was well and truly stretched though.
To further increase my appetite, I did a 9 mile run. I started the challenge at 15.50 so thats only 15 hours or so without food. I prefer to go without food for about 20 hours to fully empty the stomach. I was still pretty confident though as last time I did it, I did no training.
So on the day, one friend drops out so its just me and Paul that go to the Dam house. Paul’s a fussy eater so it was no onion rings, mushrooms or salad. Fortunately, the chef at the Dam House was very accommodating and swapped those out for another couple of burgers.
The burgers.
Paul’s special challange, no mushroom, onion rings or salad but an extra 2 burgers.
Paul’s burger needed 3 spikes to keep it together. I probably would have preferred to have an extra 2 burgers instead of the salad, mushroom and onion rings. The salad is a killer. It compacts well but there is a lot of volume to eat.
I decided on a change of tact. I’d eat the salad at the same time as the burger which would only leave the chips to eat. I wasn’t making as good a time as last time.
My plate 13 minutes – salad almost gone.
13 minutes in, I’d got to the point where most of the salad had gone and just a regular burger to eat. I hit some barrier at this point though. The burger took me another 7 minutes to finish. With about 9 minutes left, I had to decide whether I could tackle the bowl of chips or just give it up.
I decided to go for it, 3 minutes and 10 chips later I decided to call it a day. I’d not even make a dint in the bowl of chips which had gone cold and with just 6 minutes left there was no chance of me finishing it. That’s when I threw in the towel.
My plate 24 minutes in when I gave up.
Paul was still going at this point but he had no chance either. Just too much food there for him. You might think it was harsh giving him the extra 2 burgers but he didn’t touch them so it would have made no difference.
Paul’s plate at the end.
So that’s two failures. In a way it was quite predictable that we’d both fail. In Paul’s case, its easy to work out. He just isn’t good enough! For me, I’ve done a bit of soul searching to try and work out how I’ve fallen from grace. In no particular order.
- Wrong tactics. Eating the salad at the same time as the burger sounded good but it just slowed me eating the burger down and when I got on to the chips they were cold. Lesson learnt, eat the salad last as its already cold.
- Lack of will. First time doing it, it was an achievement. Second time isn’t as good. I’ll save £4 if put myself through a load of pain. Great.
- Distraction of having Paul there. First time I did it, I was by myself, no one to talk to and all I had to do was concentrate on eating the burger. This time, I was chatting and my mind wasn’t 100% on eating the burger.
- Failure being acceptable. As I knew Paul was going to fail, its not as bad me failing. If he would have done it, I’d have gone the extra mile maybe.
I think it’ll be a while before I attempt the challenge again. I’m happy to leave it at tried twice, won one and lost one.
If you fancy trying the only challenge in Sheffield I’ve failed so far, head down to the Dam House. If you do manage to complete it, use the submit challenge form and I’ll post it up on the site for you.
the damhouse
Mushroom Lane,
Sheffield,
South Yorkshire
S3 7NZ
