Eating Challenge FAIL

Remember the eating challenge I was preparing for last month (here), at Outback Jacks... well, I went ahead and tried it today, but failed.
It was a kilo steak and a kilo of veges & wedges, which had to be eaten in less than 30 minutes.
And during the month of July, the fastest time at each location would compete for footy final tickets.

So I got to the Browns Plains restaurant a little before 1pm, and while waiting for my friend to arrive I asked about the challenge, and saw on the wall a list of "best times" already for this month... and the fastest so far was 19m 30s.
What the...
They must have been shoveling it in, or had a really tender piece of meat that melted in the mouth (easier to swallow).
I also saw at the meat counter, the steaks ready for cooking. (the ones on the left are the kilo steaks)

As soon as my friend arrived, we ordered. Only I was doing the challenge, but was told that it could take 50 minutes to prepare. It only took about 25-30 minutes though.

(click on the image to see it full size)

And with my hand in frame for scale, to show how large this was.

The lady serving us told us that the fastest time ever for the challenge was about 12 minutes, but a scrawny little Asian boy.
12 minutes?
For all of that?
How the heck...

Well, no time to worry about that.
They rang a bell and started a stop watch, and I was off.
Not sure if I should have been eating the wedges first, but they were so yummy and crunchy.
After about 5 minutes, most of the potato was gone.

After about 10 minutes only the meat was left...

...but maybe I should have started with it first.
The meat was very tough and chewy, and not very pink (I asked for medium rare), so it took a lot longer than I had expected. It was taking me about half a minute of chewing with each bite, which was way too long. I've had more tender meat from woolies & coles, so was very surprised (and disappointed) that their meat was so tough to cut and chew.
In the end I had to start cutting the meat into tiny pieces so that they could be swallowed with just a couple chews... but cutting was now taking too long, and the half chewed chunks of meat was starting to make me nauseous.
This was about 20 minutes, which missed out on the current record (meaning I had failed to get the best time). At least I wasn't feeling full yet, so there was still a chance. I just had to finish within another 10 minutes.

Then the 30 minutes came around... and I was still struggling to chew through the rest of the meat. The last part of the meat was really sinewy, so it was taking longer with each bite.

 I didn't bother rushing as much now, so at about 35-40 minutes I was finally at the last bite...

 And done...

As bad as the meat was, I was really disappointed in myself for just failing. I had the stomach capacity (from having a few big meals this week), and I didn't tire with the chewing (was chewing gum all week until two days ago to build up the jaw muscles)... so if I had steak that was tender, and not over-cooked (it was well past medium), I'm pretty sure I'd have been under the time limit. Just not sure about getting a record though.

After I was done though, I had a craving for something sweet, so had a slice of their mudcake.  It was dryer than mudcake should be, but was served hot with a chocolate sauce, which was nice.

I might try it again, but not sure if I'll do it before this month's promotion is over.
I just want to prove to myself that I could do it, because now I know I can if the meat wasn't tough.