Taking up Ironman challenge for the 10th time
Triathlon athlete from Centurion did his 10th Ironman at the age of 43 and plans on doing his last at the age of 80.
Jaco Steenkamp (43) from Centurion was part of a group of 25 athletes that celebrated the Ironman South Africa Challenge’s tenth anniversary by competing in this event for the tenth time.
This three-discipline race took place at the beginning of April at Nelson Mandela Bay, Port Elizabeth. It was the first year that it was sold out. Marked as one of the toughest triathlon races, 2 400 athletes participated and were encouraged by more than 80 000 spectators.
Another first is the change to the course which now sees the swim becoming a single loop of 3,8km, and the bike leg becoming two loops of 90km each. The running leg, stretched over a distance of 42,2km, still had three loops.
Steenkamp said he did not complete the race in a time that he was satisfied with, partly due to the changes that were made in the course. “This was an extremely difficult race and with the PE wind, it was even worse,” he said. Steenkamp finished in 12:07:00.
Regardless of the conditions he still enjoyed the race and will be back next year. Ever since Steenkamp started competing in the Ironman, he had one goal in mind and that is to prove to his friends that he is capable of completing ten Ironman challenges. “My next target is to do another ten races,” he said optimistically.
Steenkamp loves any type of challenge. One of his biggest aspirations is to compete in the Ironman World Championships, held in Hawaii.
Steenkamp said the best part of the race is when he runs on the red carpet scene as one comes in towards the finishing line. “When the commentator, Paul Kaye, calls out your name and says ‘Jaco, you are an ironman,’ you feel like a million bucks,” Steenkamp said.
There is no time to rest for Steenkamp. He will soon put on his running shoes again and participate in the Comrades Marathon on 1 June. In 2005 he was daring enough to compete in the Ironman, run the Two Oceans and soon afterwards the Comrades Marathon. “Doing all three races is quite tough. Halfway through the runningyou can feel your body aching. During the Comrades I chew on the inside of my mouth so that I could not feel my body’s pain,” he said.
Steenkamp is not planning to hang up his training shoes. When asked until when he will push himself to the limit, he said he is planning on to do his last Ironman as an 80-year-old man. His motivation is to ‘just do it’ and to do it for the love of sport. “If you are not loving what you do, you are not going to get very far,” he said.
