The Fat Boy Challenge: A race report of a different kind

It's no secret that I'll be racing the Desaru 116 triathlon in about a week's time. It would be a good test of my Ironman preparations so far, just 10 weeks before Ironman Western Australia. Taking on the Fat Boy Challenge is probably one of the most foolish things I have ever done, especially just a week out from this race.

If you recall from my post a couple of months ago about Novembar, a quaint lunch bar, operated by a creative (and borderline maniac) proprietor Minh Van. Li-Ann's friends organized a dinner get-together on Thursday night, with one of them taking up the Fat Boy Challenge. I've been wanting to give this challenge a shot anyway, so I decided to join in too.

The Fat Boy Challenge is a 1.3kg burger consisting of 2 burger buns, 7 beef patties, 3 slices of cheese, 1 egg, 1 bacon and cooked onions. Normally priced at $28.50 on the menu, but if you take up the challenge, you only pay $1 for every minute you take to complete the burger. With the condition that you MUST finish the burger.

Because we had a large group and there was only one chef (Minh himself), it took a while before our burgers were served. As the others were getting their burgers brought to their table, I was beginning to feel nervous. Even the triple cheeseburger (3 beef patties, 3 slices of cheese) looked enormous, I wasn't sure if I could finish my Fat Boy!

I did a mistake by starting too quickly, both from the hunger and also the eagerness to set a good time. As it was physically impossible to eat the burger as a whole, I attacked it patty by patty. The patties are actually made from scratch, so they were stuffed with fillings, not your typical frozen thin ones.

I was averaging about 1 minute per patty up until the 4th patty, when I started experiencing some heart burn. And then, it got harder to down the patties once my stomach began to fill up. By the 6th patty, I think I hit the wall. So, I drank some water to wash it down before taking the last patty. It took me nearly 3 minutes to finish the last patty with the bun. My total time was 15 minutes and 15 seconds, hence I needed to pay $15.25. And to think the quickest time on the leaderboard to date is 6:21!

Surprisingly, my stomach held up quite well that night. The 70 minute run session I had the next morning though, wasn't a pretty sight! But I recovered well the next morning, posting my first ride in the hills under 3 hours with a 2 minute PB on the Mundaring Weir climb.

I'll be leaving for Desaru this coming Thursday night and arriving in Singapore on Friday morning. Next post shall be my Desaru race report!