race walking AMA

Does it bother you that being a fast race walker means cheating?

I've been on teams with hockey players before, and it was amazing how quickly they could run when appearing to be skating on dry land in running shoes. Salazar, too, looked like he was a cheating race walker far more than he looked like a runner.

That said, and I've watched plenty of race walking and race walking how-to videos, is there an effort out there to develop a different walking technique that still falls under the correct rules? I'm thinking an Obree cycling-type effort, if you followed how crazy positions can still work and be faster under current guidelines.

bothfeedofftheground wrote:

Does it bother you that being a fast race walker means cheating?

Well it's not cheating. The rule is that one foot has to remain on the ground at all times, as judged by the naked eye. The human eye can only detect lifting over .04s and most of us are lifting for about that long.

Obviously that isn't a satisfactory answer. But you play to what the rules are. If all of a sudden they said we are going to use cameras or some other technology, you adapt.

That said, and I've watched plenty of race walking and race walking how-to videos, is there an effort out there to develop a different walking technique that still falls under the correct rules? I'm thinking an Obree cycling-type effort, if you followed how crazy positions can still work and be faster under current guidelines.

Umm there are guys that walk a bit differently. A lot of the African walkers (of which there aren't many) cycle quite a bit, and a lot of them end up getting DQ'd for lifting, but someone like Lebo Shange, who was 4th (behind a Russian who shouldn't have been allowed to race, and had his ANA status revoked less than a year after worlds; and behind a Brazilian who served a 6 month ban AFTER worlds, despite testing positive for the substance in May of 2017... so really we can call him Second) has a very different, but very legal technique.

Lebo is also an awesome story. Guy started race walking in 2008 after being told by the police in his local township that he needed to clean up his act or he'd end up in jail. He was watching Jared Tallent in Beijing and said to himself, hmmm I think I could do that. And started training... He also has a organization set up that gives shoes and gear to kids in his local township to help get them playing sport. All around good guy.

if a runner (or anybody) wanted to try race walking and explore his/her potential in the sport, what is the best way to get started? Maybe the answer depends on whether there is an experienced coach or walking group nearby- but in many cases, there are no competitive walkers or coaches in the athlete's area. Who can they ask for help- any videos or programs or online coaching, etc.?

By the way, thanks for this AMA!

This is honestly one of the best AMA's I've seen on these boards. I am shocked. Thanks for doing this, Evan.!

yeah, good thread.

Have you or anyone you know tried walking in the Nike 4% shoe? If so, whats the feedback been like? If not, why not?

Why are Americans so bad at it? Poorer quality athletes getting into the sport, or doping less than the Russians and other powers?

Americans have an extremely small talent pool trying the event now, basically no feeder system. There was literally 5 to 10 times the depth in the 1980s, when many NY high schools had race walkers. In the 80s, there would be 20-plus men a year under 1:33 for 20k or under 4:35 for 50k, while now we have 3 or 4. From about 1980 to 2004, often with a boost from having some kind of training group in Colorado Springs, Georgia or Chula Vista, there would be several American men under 1:24 and 4:00. Not any more.

Evan, thanks for your interesting comments and willingness to answer questions serious and humorous.

Thanks for answering my first questions. That llama vs. alpaca question is a tough one. I’d probably go with alpaca, though, because they’re smaller and so they could probably fit in my room better.

Here are more questions I have:

Does it feel weird for you to walk normally? Or do you just race walk everywhere?

When I was watching figure skating, I heard about that thing with Kostner’s ex-boyfriend being a race walker who was taking EPO, I think. Does doping actually help race walkers?

getting started in walking wrote:

if a runner (or anybody) wanted to try race walking and explore his/her potential in the sport, what is the best way to get started? Maybe the answer depends on whether there is an experienced coach or walking group nearby- but in many cases, there are no competitive walkers or coaches in the athlete's area. Who can they ask for help- any videos or programs or online coaching, etc.?

By the way, thanks for this AMA!

There are a few resources out there, but you're right it is tough without a coach or someone to show you the ropes. I think Dave McGovern does clinics around the country (Im honestly not great on staying on top of this sort of thing so one of the other American walkers now following this feed might be better at answering).

But hey, Im always available to give guidance, shoot me a message on yee 'ole instagram (shameless plug) and I can help however I can.

Bron Y Aur wrote:

yeah, good thread.

Have you or anyone you know tried walking in the Nike 4% shoe? If so, whats the feedback been like? If not, why not?

I don't, New Balance all the way! Except they don't pay me, so like New Balance most of the way? I don't know.

I don't know of anyone who has tried them. Honestly I don't even know much about their design. But I imagine the effects would be slightly less in race walking vs. running partially because we are just going slower, and with the lower impact we are putting way less force into the ground (and heel striking) so there would be relatively less force to be "saved" with the carbon fibre plate. Is the plate throughout the shoe or just in the forefoot?

Also as for the, "why not" that's just a lot of money to blow on a shoe that might not work.

Seriously mate? wrote:

This is honestly one of the best AMA's I've seen on these boards. I am shocked. Thanks for doing this, Evan.!

Ahh thank you! I appreciate that. I think too many athletes take themselves too seriously. We are nothing without you guys. I don't have many fans who intrinsically like me for my race walking prowess, but if I can set myself apart as someone who is informed, open, genuine, and can happily make fun of themselves, then perhaps I can set myself apart and add another level of value to my "brand" and help me make a living out of this crazy, weird event that, for better or worse, I love.

usanoway wrote:

Why are Americans so bad at it? Poorer quality athletes getting into the sport, or doping less than the Russians and other powers?

I think part of it is that the good athletes you do have leave the sport.

Tyler Sorensen- 5th at World Youths 2011; 11th at World Juniors 2012

- then went on and did a computer science degree at Stanford and got a real job.

Trevor Barron- 19th at Worlds in 2011 as a Junior and Olympian in 2012.

- Did a computer science degree and now works with robots

Basically your talented athletes that try the event are too smart to stick around. But in Canada we had a similar thing happen. My teammates studied Law and Engineering and managed to be top 8 guys in the World. I think part of it is the belief that you can balance those things. Our training group has a stern belief that you can combine athletics with other pursuits.

I feel like in the US there is this belief in the race walk community that you have to be singularly committed to race walk. This might be wrong, but from the outside it is what I see. I think that scares/ pushes people away. Taylor Ewert is a good example, this girl is GOOD, 10th at World Juniors this year but she's also a decent runner and enjoys running and I hear people saying that she needs to stop running... NO if she enjoys running, let her keep running!

But there is also the aspect that race walking isn't offered in most states at the high school level. In Canada it is a high school event in B.C and that's where our top guys are from and we have a group of 20 plus kids. In NY it is part of the schools program and so many of your top athletes come from there.

THAT said, you do have Katie Burnett who is one of the top women in the women's 50km which is FINALLY an official event. So there is some talent there!

LoneStarXC wrote:

Here are more questions I have:

Does it feel weird for you to walk normally? Or do you just race walk everywhere?

When I was watching figure skating, I heard about that thing with Kostner’s ex-boyfriend being a race walker who was taking EPO, I think. Does doping actually help race walkers?

I walk quite slow leisurely. Unless I have a destination, then I like to get there.

Yah Alex Schwarzer is a giant tool. Guy doped before London and got caught and banned for 3.5years (he was probably doped before winning Gold in '08 too, lets be honest) he admitted he doped, cried like a baby, said he'd never come back to the sport, said it was a 1 time thing... turned out that was a lie and he had been working with Ferrari for years... 2016 rolls around, he comes back starts training his ban ends in April, he gets entered for World Team Champs in Rome for May (IAAF made up a "late entry fee" to allow him to compete...) he easily wins the race (I lost my voice yelling things that the mods won't let me post on this forum for 3.5 hours), I get kicked out of the medal ceremony for further abusing him... 1 month later he tests positive again, loses that gold medal, justifies all of my actions and then goes on a innocence campaign trying to compete in Rio (he even showed up and claimed he was going to walk a 50km on the same day outside the village to prove that he would have won, but he never did it).

He even created a fake twitter account to masquerade as a supporter, Theodor Quandt.... who if you wiki him was a Ace WW1 fighter pilot who was shot down the first days of WW2 (similar to Alex being Olympic champ in '08 and not getting the chance to defend in 2012...). Anyway, surprisingly I could continue to go on about this (crazy right?) but I won't.

Why wouldn't doping help race walkers? Look at how well Russia did. Think of race walking as running with rules, everything else is the same. We work at the same relative intensity otherwise, so if we can dope and increase out VO2max we increase the pace we can walk at below our LT.

This is where we all must give our sympathies to Jared Tallent. He's clean, 100%. But he's been robbed time after time.

2008- Bronze in the 20km behind a guy who failed a test months earlier but magically was still allowed to compete...

Silver in the 50km behind Alex the Drug Cheat

2009- Went out in the lead pack with like 5 drug cheats and they all DNF'd or DQ'd and Jared had killed himself trying to keep up that he blew up and finished 6th, but had they not been in the race, he'd have won hands down.

2011- Bronze, now silver after 1 Russian got caught, still behind another Russian

2012- Bronze at our World Team Champs- later became Gold

Silver at the Olympics- later became Gold

2013- Bronze, has a Russian in front of him that still stands...

2014- Bronze behind 2 Russians (might be Gold by now, I lose track!)

2015- Silver (a legit silver behind Matej Toth)

2016- Silver World Team Champs, later became Gold

Silver Olympics (behind Matej, but led until like 48km!)

He's been robbed of more medals that anyone else I suspect.

That other American race walker here! So, right now in America, it is really hard to get started. Depending on where you are in the country will limit you on knowledgeable coaches in your area. Coincidentally, a lack of knowledgeable coaches is what is hurting the American race walking scene the most. There is no lack of talent in the USA, but we really lack coaches who can teach the technique.

For example: me. I started actually training for the race walk in the Fall of 2009. I only felt like I could do "elite" walking technique consistently in April of this year. I had knowledgeable coaches in the race walk, but the USA is notorious for having sub-par technique internationally. And my core strength sucked before.

Since I am horribly behind on making my own how-to's on race walking, Ian Whatley has some good videos to get started with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvxrJx2JdSg

The big things that I notice right away is that everyone is so focused on trying to go forward that they do all the work with the leg that is stepping. But power and speed in race walking is the same as in running in that it comes from the push off leg. When I race walk, I merely am stepping my lead leg forward with a straight knee while I use my core/glutes to stabilize, and extending my back leg further behind me until push off (it's all posterior chain on the leg). Start with small steps and then try to lengthen your stride by trying to keep your back foot on the ground as long as possible, rolling off the toes.

You want a shoe without a big, bulky heel. The thickest shoe I've ever race walk trained in is the New Balance 1080. Most of what I use are road running racing flats: New Balance 1400, 1500, Zante; Adidas Adios, Boost Boston; Asics Hyperspeed, Tarthers (no longer in USA); Nike Zoom Streak, Zoom Fly (before the redesign), Saucony Type A8. There are some race walk specific shoes from the Decathlon shoe brand of Newfeel. They are new the the US. There is also a new company out of the Portland area called ReShod walking shoes designed by a race walker. Those can be helpful in "teaching" the technique of race walking.

And thanks for the shoutout Evan!

If anyone has any additional questions or wants specific help in finding a coach in the US I will do my best to help. I'm over in Bellingham/Seattle, Washington these days, but I'm hoping to coach more coaches and athletes about the event anytime I'm traveling for races too. Will also accept hate mail. Gets lonely sometimes...

racewalking@pacificnw.usatf.org

Or hit me up on Instagram if that's your thing: @kt8walks

These sites are useful too:

http://racewalking.org/

https://racewalk.com/

Katie Burnett

50k Race Walk American Record Holder

Thanks for this Evan and good luck in your fundraising for a very worthy cause!

I'm a new convert to watching race walking (last 12 months or so). I love the contrast in styles, the pain etched on the faces. You can really sense what a struggle it is to maintain those paces for such distances! Like you I also love that it has such a global reach with South & Central Americans, in particular, able to be very successful.

My question/s for you ... do the top race walkers ever train at altitude and does it deliver the same kind of benefits that runners can get from it? I would imagine the answer to the 2nd part is yes but given the lack of money in the sport compared even to running, do many walkers get the opportunity? I presume you're all holding down "real" jobs too.

First off, this is pretty freaking cool. Thanks for doing this.

As a runner (and now coach), I’ve come around to race walking the past few years and have had the opportunity to coach some pretty decent race walkers at the NAIA collegiate level over the years. So as my understanding of the sport has increased, my lack of appreciation for short exhibition races has decreased.

What the hell is with the mile? I’m sorry, but I watched milrose two years ago and that wasn’t racewalking. “... observed by the naked eye” my arse. My untrained eye could spot lifts in that race from four states away. I know Bosworth “walked” 5:31 in the Diamond League but c’mon, is that really legitimate? I just don’t see how someone could walk a mile, legally, in much under 6:00. What do you think about the exhibition miles? Doesn’t seem like a very good representation of rw to me (though I get the lack of general awareness so as a pr stunt... maybe). And also, I acknowledge I’m no expert so maybe I’m off base here.