Unhealthy Competition? Woman Roasts Six Guys In Turkey Eating Contest

Competitive eater Sonya "The Black Widow" Thomas, of Alexandria, Va. put her cavernous stomach to good use in a turkey eating contest.

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A traditional Thanksgiving turkey

A 105-pound woman literally devoured the myth that size matters on Tuesday, when she gobbled down a whole turkey in ten minutes to win a festive eating competition, leaving behind just a single bone.

Competitive eater Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas, of Alexandria, Va. put her cavernous stomach to good use as she chewed out the male competition – including a man four times her size – to take top prize at the Manhattan turkey eating contest.

Among the men left gagging in the 42-year-old’s wake was the world record holder for pumpkin pie-eating, Eric “Badlands” Booker, who was amazed by Sonya’s appetite.

“I’m definitely in awe of her abilities, to be so small and eat so much,” Booker, 42, told the New York Daily News.

(MORE: Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Thanksgiving)

The eating athletes had ten minutes to cram down as much of a 10-pound turkey as they could stomach.

But Thomas, who is renowned for her eating prowess, made it look easy. The weapon of mass-consumption holds 24 world records in total and has devoured everything from oysters to cheesecake.

But while many of her rivals trained extensively for the turkey-eating event, Thomas maintains it’s a simple case of telling your eyes that they’re smaller than your stomach.

“It’s a mind game,” “she told the New York Daily News. “If you lose your focus and say you’re getting full and slow down, you lose.”

The restaurant manager won $1,581 in prize money from the contest and revealed that while some of the money would pay for her family’s Thanksgiving feast, she’d be giving the turkey a rest for a while.

Jak Phillips is a contributor at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @JakPhillips. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.