The Road to Nathan's: Acoma Jalapeno Results 8/25/06

Results form the Showdown in Acoma (IFOCE rank in paraenthesis)

1st - Pat "Black Out" Bertoletti(4) - 177 jalapenos $1000
2nd - Rich "the Locust" LeFevre(8) - 155 jalapenos $500
3rd - Jalapeno Jed Donahue(18) - 144 jalapenos $375
4th - Erik the Red Denmark(12) - 107 jalapenos $250
5th - Buffalo Jim Reeves(19) - 73 jalapenos $150
6th - Donovan Busta(NR) - 56 jalapenos
7th - Don "Moses" Lerman(29) - 49 jalapenos

I think I am finally waking up from my travel and competitive eating induced coma over the past three weeks. I have been busy and honestly the schedule has worn me down a bit but let me recount my last three contest adventures for you starting with jalapenos (Excerpts of the following are taken from an interview with Liz and Krista and are published Here at Urban Honking's Truefan) :

I was not really surprised by the winning total of 177 and that Pat took the title. I was very surprised and impressed however that three eaters ended up over 140 and that I was not one of them. Pat, Jed, and Rich all had great days. It is a shame that this contest was not held at a bigger venue with more attention because it was definitely one of the most grueling and entertaining tests of 1. speed, 2. capacity, and especially 3. resistance from the vinegar, heat, and flavor of the jalapenos.

I personally was not that impressed by my own total of 107. I was doing fairly well in the first 8-9 minutes of the contest, I had about 90 down and I was probably 30-35 behind Pat. I stood up from a sitting position to try and wiggle the food lower in my stomach and the taste and the vinegar hit me suddenly and my body reacted violently - I threw up twice in my mouth and my cheeks were bulging as I was trying to keep it in, the regurgitated jalapeno juice started coming out of my nose! I managed to compose myself and swallow what was in my mouth but I was walking a very thin line the rest of the contest, I did not push it at all after that because a reversal and disqualification would have been devastating to me. This contest was a test of will.

As far as Don Lerman's performance, I think it is about what I expected. I laughed at the comments he made on his website, not because I don't respect Don but because I know he was really only trying to draw attention to himself and the contest and that he would use it as motivation. Don acts completely different in person than he does online, he was very cordial and reserved the couple of times I have met him. I feel bad that Don won't let go of the past and that he won't retire or at least take any real time off to try and improve his health and potentially gain some of the form he used to show. I appreciate the effort that Don puts forth but he finished with only 49 jalapenos and he can't be competitive with numbers like that.

Here are some photos from the contest courtesy of Jed Donahue:

Just makes me hungry to look at them