The Rake & Herald has an interview with Ronnie "Mega Byte" Hartman, possibly the first active duty soldier to compete in the Nathan's finals.

September 16, 2013 at 8:57 am by ojrifkin · More posts about:2013 Nathan's Hot Dog Contest, Other IFOCE members | Permalink * Comments (9)

9 Comments »

  1. Anonymous said

    September 16, 2013 @ 11:48 am

    Wasn’t there an active duty military person competing at the 2010 Nathan’s finals?

  2. anonymous said

    September 16, 2013 @ 12:06 pm

    The LA Beast ate more hot dogs than this military guy in a qualifier yet they let him in instead of the Beast? I think someone got a real shaft job if you ask me . To add insult to injury allow some guy from Canada in the finals that ate 10 hot dogs and looked like a nerd

  3. HARTMAN said

    September 16, 2013 @ 1:14 pm

    I expect him to be ranked around 24 when the rankings are released. Hartman can only improve with experience There are alot of good first year eaters this season unlike anything I have seen . Sudo, Hartman, Pablo Martinez and Jeff Butler are all top 25 eaters. Maybe next season Molly decides to sign with MLE ?

  4. LA BEAST ? said

    September 16, 2013 @ 1:38 pm

    Is La Beast even with MLE anymore ?..

  5. Rhonda Evans said (Registered March 6, 2008)

    September 16, 2013 @ 2:02 pm

    12:06, you, sir, are nothing but a sad jackass to even ask that rhetorical question. It sort of makes me sad that heroes like Ronnie risk their lives to protect a**holes like you.

  6. Ignatius Rake said (Registered August 6, 2012)

    September 16, 2013 @ 3:26 pm

    Hello 12:06. Mega Byte himself addresses this issue when he says of appearing at Nathan’s: “It’s almost bitter sweet: while I was there I didn’t really deserve it and I don’t think I could fully enjoy it.”

    As for Canada’s Christos ‘Hot Dog Hercules’ Kyriazis, I can only guess. However, Nathan’s is billed as an “international” hot dog eating contest. As we kind of observed in our original Nathan’s report (http://www.therakeandherald.tv/society/societystory.php?id=252) everybody but Hot Dog Hercules in the Men’s event was from the US . Even the Calgary qualifier was won by Aaron ‘A-Train’ Osthoff.

    Is it not possible then that Hot Dog Hercules was selected, if not for any other reason, to make legitimise the international aspect, perhaps in order to meet some contractual/legal obligation of which the public is unaware? I personally don’t know. It’s just a guess.

    Regardless, I wish Mega Byte well. Once he’s out of the military next year, I think it’s fair bet that he will compete much more frequently (provided his wrestling career doesn’t stop him for whatever reason). He certainly seems to loves CE and he obviously wants to improve and eat again at Nathan’s under his own steam.

  7. Ignatius Rake said (Registered August 6, 2012)

    September 16, 2013 @ 3:28 pm

    Apologies for the typos in the above post. I usually try to save them for our reports.

  8. Locust said

    September 16, 2013 @ 5:23 pm

    You deserved to be there, Ronnie. Don’t let a couple of haters on this site dampen your enthusiasm. Good luck in the future.

  9. Ronnie said

    September 19, 2013 @ 3:50 pm

    Thanks for the support everyone! I look forward to doing as many contests as I can in the future, and want to validate my ability. I’m not just a one act pony in this sport, and look forward to being apart of MLE for a long period to come. I went from 16 hot dogs to 23 1/2 (+7 1/2) in just 2 weeks, and I don’t even think were close to my peak.

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