CityView Magazine

32 | July/August 2015 on "Mac's Pig Eating Hall of Fame" wall and a Mac's t-shirt and a cap. In the 10 years since the first Mac's Speed Shop opened its doors, bar manager Mosheh Sampson estimates that hun- dreds of customers have at- tempted the challenge, 80 of which did so at the Fayette- ville location. So far, only five of those brave men had their names immortalized on the wall of fame. ose with mere-mortal appetites still have their chance at immor- tality, but in a far less flatter- ing context. "If you don't get it, you still get on the wall of shame, which is by the bath- room," said Nick Hart, gen- eral manager. "So succeed or fail, you'll get on our wall." is was news to that day's challenger, James Anthony Wyatt, who had only decided to participate in the chal- lenge on a lark. "ere's a wall of shame?" Wyatt asked. "I'm going to be on the wall of shame if I lose this thing? Well great. I'm determined not to end up on that wall." Wyatt's odds may be better than most, given his military background. According to Sampson, out of the five all-time winners of the challenge, two of them are from Fayetteville. "Just by nature, this town is full of very driven people and I think that helps with challenges like this," Sampson said. "Just the personality of your James is in awe of the "Fatboy" average person here is very mission oriented." While Wyatt, a soldier and fitness enthusi- ast, may seem like the kind of guy who would fit Sampson's description, he admitted to not hav- ing much of a strategy in mind when entering into this particular mission. "I haven't practiced for this at all. I am just going to try to scarf it all down," Wyatt said. "I am just feeling froggy, you know? I haven't eaten anything today." Wyatt described himself as being "very hum- ble but very hungry," and ranked his probabil- ity of success at a seven, out of a possible 10. As if to keep his humility in check, Wyatt invited along friend Casey Landru, who spent much of the hour playfully trash talking Wyatt from an adjacent table. "I don't know. He's kind of small. Looks like he hasn't been liing too much weight lately," Landru teased. Wyatt gets through the top layers of the sandwich with- out much slowdown, however when he arrives at the bottom layer of bread, he begins to tug a tin bucket provided by the Mac's staff, closer to his seat. "e bread is the hardest, that's what people say," Sampson said. "Everyone has their own way. ey're not allowed to dip the bread in their beverage. Usu- ally around the 20 or 30-minute mark people hit the wall. If you can get the majority of it done in the first 20 minutes you'll be pretty good. We have a few peo- ple who get sick, but most people stop before then. We did have one guy who tried to energize himself halfway through. He tried to do 20 push-ups, which got him sick. I don't recommend that." Apparently, Wyatt didn't need calisthenics to get him sick. At 47 min- utes, Wyatt chose to throw in the towel. "I have never been this full in my life. I have never eaten that much in my life," Wyatt said, punctuating his sentence with a com- bination of a burp and a cough. "I have never quit anything before, but I could not eat another bite of that. I wish I could have fin- ished it, but I didn't want to push it to that level where I knew I was going to throw up. Right now, I'm at that brink." Manager Mosheh Sampson

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