Daily Dosage: Racewalking to the record books

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve long considered myself a Walker – and that’s an intentionally capitalized W. Growing up, I even had a poster of Henry David Thoreau plastered above my ceiling, as a reminder of my favorite weekend pastime.

Okay, that’s a lie. I was all about Jonathan Taylor Thomas pin-ups. But I did grow up doing a lot of walking. That said, it wasn’t until this year that I found out about professional racewalking: people who walk competitively, within a particular set of rules and guidelines, and make mad cash doing it. Given that my pelvis is currently on-the-mend from a rather excruciating and non-diagnosed fracture (thank you, American health care), I thought racewalking might be a nice segue way back to running.

But I soon found out that this isn’t just a stroll through the park. Racewalking may be one of the most technically challenging sports I’ve ever experienced: while runners just put one foot in front of the other, and sometimes get downright wack with their stride, racewalkers follow specific regulations about how they can and can’t move – and face disqualification if they screw up. Racewalk.com offers an eight-page guide on walking technique, and the USATF mandates two specific rules for pros:

“Race walking is a progression of steps so taken that the walker makes contact with the ground so that no visible (to the human eye) loss of contact occurs.

The advancing leg must be straightened (i.e., not bent at the knee) from the moment of first contact with the ground until in the vertical upright position.”

Elite racewalkers can hotfoot 8-minute miles. That’s probably faster than your morning jog, champ. Check out this video of Russian superstar Olga Kaniskina finishing a 20 km race in 1:30:09. Never before has athleticism looked so constipated.