TRAVERSE CITY -- Yao Lin got off to a fast start, but he ultimately went to the dogs.
Hot dogs, that is. Lin, who represented China Fair restaurant in Tuesday's hot dog-eating contest at the National Cherry Festival, found out hot dogs can bite back.
"It was harder than I thought it would be," said Lin, who early on jumped out to a three-dog lead but eventually wobbled to an eighth-place finish. "The grease on the hot dogs just makes you want to gag."
Traverse City restaurant Opa! Coney & Grill sponsored the contest that featured relatively simple rules: 10 contestants had 10 minutes to wolf down as many hot dogs as possible from a massive plate. Condiments were allowed, though competitors ignored them, and water available as a chaser.
Uneaten hot dogs and buns prompted penalties, as did unintended refunding, otherwise known as vomiting.
Sterling Heights resident Joanne Gray said her contest favorite didn't win, but the worst part is that he was hit by another hopeful's stream of partially eaten hot dogs.
"It was exciting, but I'm feeling bad for all of them," Gray said.
Robert Myzel struggled, but captured top honors after he devoured 12 hot dogs. He hoped to dunk buns into a water cups so the bread didn't absorb so much of his saliva. But bottled water was all that was available and wasn't a fit for that chore.
"At first I was trying to figure out the size of the dog," Myzel said. "I took smaller bites and drank water halfway through each dog."
Lin developed his strategy by watching professional hot dog-eating contests. He chose to separate dog from bun, then doused the bun with water and ate the bread. Then he'd gobble the dog and repeat the process.
Paul and Brigette Barbas, owners Opa! Coney & Grill, said the contest offered a way to generate some festival buzz, even if it had nothing to do with cherries.
"The idea is to get people to come to the Cherry Festival," Paul Barbas said. "If we're doing that, then we're doing something right."
The two have big plans for the contest and are already considering ways to expand and make it bigger next year.
"Attendance was better than expected and all the contestants had a great time," Brigette Barbas said. "It's absolutely something we want to build on."
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