Neal’s First Competitive Eating Contest

This is the first time I have ever entered a competitive eating competition and will probably be my last!  It was great fun though!  I entered the Clam Cake Eating Competition at Blount Clam Shack in Warren Rhode Island over the weekend and did pretty well.  First let me set it up, someone here at the radio station asked if I would like to get into the competition, I said sure, we traveled to Blount's Warren location, which by the way is in a beautiful spot.  When I got there there were 15 other competitors ready to go, some like me doing it for the first time then there were others who have done this kind of thing quite a few times.  We were given 10-minutes to stuff as many clam cakes into our bellies as we could, we all started with a plate of 6 of these delicious balls of dough stuffed with clams, as I polished off my third cake, the guy across from me was already getting his second plate of six!  I started tearing into these tender morsels a little faster and got through the first six, then I started to slow up a bit and ended up eating eight, not bad for a beginner, other competitors patted me on the back saying good job, we didn't think you'd finish the first plate!  I felt pretty good about how many I ate, there were a couple of others that didn't eat that many, I could have finished a couple more but I was so far behind that I would never catch the winner.  The winner, his name is Joe Menchetti, Joe enters these competitions quite often and he was able to slam 26 clam cakes into his mouth before the ten minute limit was up!  There was a tie for second and third they each ate 24!  All in all it was a great day and everyone had a great time!  Thanks to Blount Clam Shack for their hospitality, next year I will be there, not to compete but to cheer on the competitors