The Bay State is home to the world’s second best hot dog eater.
Geoffrey Esper, a Massachusetts teacher, finished in second place at Nathan’s Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Championship in Brooklyn on Monday.
The Oxford resident devoured 47.5 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes — coming in second to world champion Joey Chestnut, who annihilated 63 hot dogs and buns. With his runner-up finish, Esper is bringing home $5,000.
“I feel fine,” Esper told the Herald four hours after consuming more than 12,500 calories in 10 minutes, as he drank a lot of liquids and recovered from the gorging in his hotel room. “I’m used to it. I’ve eaten hundreds of hot dogs in the last few weeks.”
Ahead of the competition, Esper told the Herald that his goal was to secure second place and to also beat his personal best of 51 hot dogs and buns. He came 3.5 hot dogs and buns short of his personal record.
Monday’s win for Chestnut was his 15th title at the annual Nathan’s July 4 competition. He was 13 hot dogs and buns short of his world record 76 hot dogs and buns.
“Everybody’s numbers were lower than a normal year,” Esper said. “But in the end, you just got to do the job, and I was happy with it.”
One hurdle for the competitors was the food sat outside in the warm sun for almost an hour.
“They brought the hot dogs and buns out too early,” Esper said. “I had a little bit of trouble with the buns being a bit stale in the sun, and the (hot dog) casing was tougher to eat.”
Also, a protester came on stage during the competition, as Chestnut put the person in a chokehold before going back to crushing hot dogs. Esper, who usually eats with his eyes closed, didn’t notice the protester until Chestnut bumped into him.
“I was like, ‘That was unusual,’ ” Esper said. “I was wondering what was Joey going to do. Was he going to go back to eating, or was he going to stop? Joey was very professional, and I was pretty impressed with the number he got after that.
“It threw me off for maybe half a minute, but it didn’t really affect my numbers too, too much,” he added.
For Esper, competitive eating is a “serious hobby” while he’s not teaching high schoolers. The 47-year-old Oxford man teaches electronics at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton.
“I know what I got to do if I really want to get my numbers up: I need to put the time in,” Esper said, noting that it’s tough to set aside enough time with a full-time teaching job.
When’s the next time he’ll polish off a hot dog? Probably not until next year when he starts training for the Nathan’s contest.
“It’s not because I don’t like to eat them,” he said. “I just don’t normally eat them because they’re not the healthiest thing for me.”
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July 05, 2022 at 01:21AM
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Geoffrey Esper, of Massachusetts, comes in 2nd place at Nathan’s hot dog eating contest, devours 47.5 hot dogs and buns - Boston Herald
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