Just over a month ago, Alexander Tominsky was an ordinary man. Now, thanks to nothing more than an iron will (and iron guts), he has transformed himself into a legend, eating 40 rotisserie chickens in 40 days and ensuring his place in history as The Philadelphia Chicken Man. Speaking to The New York Times following the completion of his mission over the weekend, Tominsky said that it wasn’t easy to achieve his goal. Initially, he would annihilate a chicken in 20 minutes and “there was no pain,” but, as he continued his work over the following weeks, Tominsky needed roughly two hours and started to feel “cramped up, bloated from all the sodium, and said that he came to believe that he could ‘feel the pulse of my heart in my stomach.’”
… Nevertheless, he persevered. Tominsky, who’s 31 and works as a restaurant server in Philadelphia, wasn’t driven by making money, settling a bet, or becoming famous. He was driven by something purer. Tominsky told the Times that “much of the world is in pain … so he must do something that brings him pain to make others smile.” He added that it “just felt like I was doing this for a very important reason” and that his personal agony was “microscopic in comparison to what the world lives with and sees everyday.”
Photo: Getty Images