There are so many wonderful reasons to head down to Heckscher Park for the annual Long Island Fall Festival, from the carnival to the vendors to the live entertainment. But my new favorite has to be the Meatball Eating Contest.

When I first heard about it, I saw no better time to start my career as a professional eater. While I'm only 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weigh 170 pounds, I've always been told I can eat a lot for someone my size.

And the contest seemed simple enough: eat as many meatballs as you can in a minute. Most meatballs wins.

At 4:45 p.m., the contestants began to take their seats in front of the Carnival stage. We each had 10 meatballs, courtesy of Rosa's Pizza, placed in front of us on a paper plate and were given some very simple instructions from contest emcee Scott "Scotto" Savitt: "Eat as many meatballs as you can. You have one minute. Go!"

And we were off.

Fourteen contestants shoving meatball after meatball into their mouths, trying to get down as many as we could in 60 seconds.

Tick, tock, tick, tock. Meatball, chew, swallow. It was all over in a matter of moments.

When I looked down at my plate, I only had two left. Eight meatballs in 60 seconds – not bad, I thought ... until I looked directly to my left. That's when I saw I had been defeated.

Jared George, 24, of Huntington, finished nine out of 10 and was named the winner of the 2010 Fall Festival Meatball Eating Contest.

"It was a glorious battle, but I prevailed," George said following his victory. "I should have slowed down, I would have gotten more."

While I didn't win, finishing second by just one meatball was an accomplishment in itself.

So will the champion be back to defend his title at the 18th annual Long Island Fall Festival?

"Yes, I will," George said. "I've got to do more than 10, at least."

I've got my work cut out for me. See you next year!