Race walking is no stroll in the park

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, May 21, 2007 by Jeff Strickler

By Jeff Strickler

MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL STAR TRIBUNE

Don't be misled by the "walker" part of race walking. Technically what race walkers do is walking. But their heart rates often are higher than those of joggers, and - yes, runners, as bitter a pill as this might be to swallow - so are their speeds.

"A good local race walker can do a marathon in eight-minute miles," said Bruce Leasure, the president and 20-year veteran of Twin Cities Race Walkers. "A world-class race walker will do it in sub-seven-minute miles."

Race walking has been an Olympic sport since 1902. Nonetheless, it still struggles for recognition among the masses who huff and puff their way around residential neighborhoods and city lakes.

On one hand, members of the club are mystified by that. Race walking boasts all the health benefits of running while avoiding many of its maladies, including the repetitive-stress injuries to ankles, knees or hips that can force long-time joggers to quit.

"It kills me to see that," said Gary Westlund, who has posted some of the fastest race walking times in the state despite having had both hips replaced because of a genetic condition. "I was very fortunate that I was a race walker. If I had been a runner, to give up something I love, that would be very, very hard."

But at the same time, even people like Leasure and Westlund, who are among the sport's most avid promoters, admit that its appeal is limited by the challenge it presents. It requires training and concentration. You can't be like joggers who lose themselves in their thoughts as they run.

"That doesn't work," Leasure said. "It happens. But when it does, you suddenly realize that you're not race walking anymore."

It takes the average person about six weeks to learn the proper technique, he said. It's not just fast walking, which is called "fitness walking." It's faster than fitness walking and much more complicated.

Unlike a runner, whose stride leaves them airborne for a moment, a race walker maintains contact with the ground at all times (and will be disqualified in a race for not doing so). The most obvious physical manifestation of this is in the hips, which rotate much more as each leg reaches forward. The less obvious one is that the head of a race walker is so steady that they could balance a glass of water atop their hat without sloshing a drop.

"Watch the head of a jogger; it goes up and down," Leasure said. "Then look at a race walker. The head is steady."

There are internal differences, too. All other things being equal, a race walker going the same speed as a runner will have a higher heart rate.

"It's because we have to take more steps," said Tish Borgen, generally considered the top female race walker in Minnesota. "Because we never get airborne, we have to take more steps to cover the same distance. If I'm keeping up with a runner who is taking 190 steps a minute, I'm taking 220 steps a minute."

Race walkers get teased a lot about the way their sport looks.

"It's always about the hips," Borgen said. "We've heard it all. You know, 'You want fries with that shake?'\u2009"

But for the most part, runners and race walkers get along, at least in these parts.

"In some places they don't," Leasure said, admitting that it's hard on some runners' egos to be passed by someone who is walking. "But here we have a lot more crossover between the groups. For instance, Tish is running three marathons this year."