NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A day before millions of Americans sit down to eat traditional Thanksgiving dinners, a Virginia woman grabbed the world turkey-eating title on Wednesday by gobbling down a whole roast bird in 12 minutes.Sonya Thomas, 37, who weighs just 105 pounds (47.5 kg), beat seven men in the annual Thanksgiving Invitational: a race to eat a 10-pound (4.5-kg) turkey.The smallest in the field, Thomas put her victory down to "swallowing fast.""It was very dry and the skin was very dry," said Thomas, holding her trophy, a roasting pan, over her head. "I just tried to eat fast."Venerated in competitive eating circles as "The Black Widow", the Alexandria, Virginia woman said she trained for the event, held at a delicatessen in New York, by chewing gum to get her jaw in top form. (Find out about competitive eating)She said she plans to eat turkey again on Thursday, but much more slowly so that she can taste every bite.Her victory was no surprise. She is ranked as the No. 2 competitive eater in the world, behind Japan's Takeru Kobayashi, according to the International Federation of Competitive Eating, which sponsored the turkey-eating event.Thomas, who collected $2,500 in prize money, has also dominated her opponents in egg, cheesecake, baked bean, crab-cake, meatball, and fruit-cake eating contests.Copyright 2005 Reuters. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.