An extreme self: Jeff Salvage and the world of racewalking

Jeff Salvage at the 2009 World Championships

Injured runners, take note: racewalking may be the sport of your future. Before you laugh it off, throw on your shorts, and limp through another five miles, give Jeff Salvage a chance to convince you that his sport is as intense as any marathon.

If the word racewalking conjures up images of elderly ladies powerwalking in track suits, you’ve got the wrong idea. Racewalking has been a track and field activity since the 1880s, and is now an Olympic sport and one of three Track and Field events at the annual IAAF world championships. It’s also extremely challenging: participants follow strict rules about gait and foot positioning, and are trained to master a specific form and cadence.

Salvage is one of the sport’s most passionate advocates. In high school, his running career was sidelined by knee injuries, so he took up racewalking instead. Within a year, Salvage could racewalk almost as fast as he used to run. Now 42, he coaches and offers racewalking clinics, has authored several books, and runs Racewalk.com and RaceWalkClinic.com, an online guide devoted to racewalking technique.

I spoke with Salvage about all-things racewalking, and within minutes, was convinced that there’s more to Extreme sports than ultimate fighting and ultramarathons.

One thing endurance runners seem to love is the intensity of their sport. The sweat, tears, elevated heart rate, etc. Can racewalking even compare to that kind of pain and endorphin rush?

I’ll be honest: initially, no. But it can become as intense, once you’re strong and trained properly. Mastering the technique takes some time, so initially you won’t get that same rush. That being said, I’ve clocked my own heart rate at over 200 on a hard workout.

What about training? How can the average walking enthusiast go from walker to racewalker?

It takes a lot of time to learn the technique, and the best way is to have a trainer to teach you. But there’s a lot of material out there: I offer clinics, books, DVDs, to help people out. The great thing is once you’ve got it, you have a sport for life. You won’t beat your body up so badly you can’t use it. I mean, I coach two eighty-year-old guys.

In general, what kinds of reactions do you get to your racewalking, and to the sport more generally? Laughed off the track, or is it becoming a well-respected sport?

Reactions haven’t changed. People just don’t know how hard you can walk, and it looks funny. So laughter is the initial reaction. Like anything, people pick on what’s different. But there are small pockets who respect and follow the sport. This year at the World Championships in Berlin, officials said we had 90,000 people come out for the women’s walk. That’s more people than watched Usain Bolt.

But the sport isn’t growing. We’ve plateaued. Colleges don’t really support it, so a high school athlete can’t make the transition to competing at a higher level. I don’t think it’s a dying sport. Other countries, without the resources to support runners, are able to support racewalkers: Poland, Ecuador. I hope they continue to gravitate toward it.

So, who’s an ideal racewalker?

For awhile, the two best women in the world were completely different body types: one was around 5′8″ and the other was 5′0″. I don’t think it comes down to physical traits, I think it’s mental psyche. The best are hardworking runners without the talent to be quite as fast as they need to be, or people with chronic pain from running who want a different sport.

Still, it’s hard to convince young, healthy runners to consider racewalking. But this is a sport that’s about longevity: those runners may not be running in their 60s, but the racewalkers will still be at it.

And what are your three “must haves” for anyone who is going to get Extreme about racewalking?

Shoes. There are no good racewalking shoes, so mine are custom from Hersey Custom Shoe. A heart rate monitor: this is a physiologically oriented event, so it can be helpful to know exactly how hard you’re working. And a Walkman. I like my music when I walk.