The Half Gallon Challenge

The much anticipated half gallon challenge ocurred at Pine Grove Furnace State Park, Pennsylvania, on June 24th. Megan and I officially finished 1,087 miles of the 2,174 mile Appalachian Trail. We courageously attempted to eat a half gallon of ice cream in 1/2 an hour. We estimated our arrival time at the state park and nearly starved ourselves that day so that we could fit that much ice cream in our tummies. Being an ice cream lover, I confidently approached the general store counter as I bought my 1/2 gallon of neapolitan ice cream. Not too much time had elapsed before my confidence began to wain. It only took about 15 minutes for me to realize it was going to be much harder than I had initially imagined. Wow, 1/2 gallon of ice cream was a lot of ice cream! Over 2,000 calories at one sitting. Gross! With only six bites left and five minutes to go in my 30 minute time limit, you would think I would be able to lick the spoon clean. You would think. But oh the tummy ache I had. It took me 14 minutes to finish those last six bites of ice cream. 39 minutes from my first bite of ice cream, I finally finished. Amazingly I kept it all down. Megan finished in an hour and ten minutes. What a trooper, by then she had to drink the last pint or so. Yuck!