The Sicario Heat Challenge eating contest…and an unexpected aftermath

Last night I competed in the Sicario Heat Challenge, put on by the Fire & Spice food truck, at the Straight to Ale taproom. The challenge was to eat a habanero taco, a ghost pepper taco, and a Carolina reaper taco in 15 minutes or less, with no other food, drink, or even wiping your hands. Then, after you finished, you had to wait 10 minutes (before any additional food, drink, or even wiping your hands).

I made it. It was tough going in the middle, but I made it.

Regular readers probably remember I’ve done something similar in the past. I didn’t have any sustained negative effects from that experience, and I didn’t expect any from this one either. I had acute suffering then. I had acute suffering this time. It had mostly abated 15 minutes after the end of the contest. Even the dreaded “ring of fire” had never been much of a problem for me.

My pastor (who had come out with his wife to support me!) bought me a Monkeynaut, I drank it, we visited, and I went home. I ate a Chick-fil-A and had another beer. I worked on the above video. A little before midnight I heard from my friend Tina, whose partner Stan had been in the contest with me. She was writing to see how I was, because she said Stan was doubled over miserable with abdominal pain. Still symptom-free, I wrote back and said thanks but I’m fine, and I hoped Stan felt better soon. I went to bed.

About 3:30 this morning I woke up with so much abdominal pain I nearly cried out. (Now keep in mind, this is nine and a half hours after I ate these tacos.) I ran and took some Pepto-Bismol, and went back to bed. I was sweating so profusely I wondered if I had a fever. The Pepto didn’t really touch the pain. I found that if I adjusted myself into the right position, the pain would mostly abate, but I had to hold the position exactly. If I moved, it returned, and pretty much immediately. Well, you get stiff, or you want a cool spot on your pillow, and you forget, so you absently move. Ouch. These are not conditions conducive to sleep.

The pain jumped back and forth between my tummy and my lower back until about 8, with me constantly shifting trying to keep it turned off. I finally slept for about an hour then, and woke up (mercifully) mostly pain-free. Started my day. I’ve had a couple of dull, short-lived reminders, but mostly I’ve felt fine today, if sleep-deprived.

It’s essentially gone, so I’m not going to worry about trying to figure out exactly what my condition was unless it returns. But it has me thinking seriously about whether I want to do something like this again. It’s one thing when I can confine the suffering to the moment. It’s quite another for it to result in internal pain, several hours removed, in a system of the body quite possibly slated to become steadily less reliable over the second half of my life whether I help it along or not.

You might also like:

11 thoughts on “The Sicario Heat Challenge eating contest…and an unexpected aftermath”

  1. Congrats on completing the challenge. You’re way tougher than me. Sounds (and looks) positively miserable!

    My initial guess on the pain is gallbladder. They can react a little violently to that kind of assault. Hopefully just a one-time thing for you.

    Reply
    • It could have been gallbladder, I guess. I’ve had what I’m pretty sure was gallbladder pain before (because it followed a high-fat meal), and this didn’t feel like I remembered. This wasn’t ignorable at all without me finding the perfect position. It would have been out of the question for me to stay at work, for example, with the pain I had this morning.

      Reply
  2. The dude to your left, in the yellow shirt, was he eating the same tacos? Because he looked like he was having no problems whatsoever. The Gent made me watch your video.

    Reply
  3. As someone that spent 3 months with gut pain, hospital visits and many $’s in doctors bills, I would say stop while you are ahead. Hope you don’t have more discomfort.

    Reply
    • Well, it’s the first time I’ve had genuine pain (as opposed to discomfort) so far removed from the actual consumption, so it’s definitely got my attention.

      I’m wondering about all the milk I drank when I ate the raw Carolina reaper pepper, though. I’m confident it contributed to some uneasiness immediately following, but I’m wondering if it didn’t effectively buffer things further down? I don’t know. I may experiment a little and see if I can come up with some conclusions.

      I definitely appreciate your words of caution. Believe me, I’ll not push this very hard at this point. 🙂

      Reply
    • Jenny, the radiation to the lower back, which I did have, says gallbladder all over the place. I believe you’re right!

      Reply

Leave a Comment

CAPTCHA


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

BoWilliams.com