Tuesday, July 29, 2025

2025 National Senior Games: 5000 Meter Race-Walk

On July 29, I competed in my second race-walk event of the National Senior Games.  Today’s event was 5,000 meters.

The venue for today’s race was Jack Trice Stadium.  That’s the football stadium used by the Iowa State Cyclones.  Our course was a one-kilometer circuit on a road that goes past the parking lots.  We needed to walk this circuit five times.

In yesterday’s 1,500-meter race, I was fourth in my age group.  That’s always a little bit disappointing, since the top three get medals.  Historically, I’ve always been more competitive at 5,000 than I am at 1,500, so I had hope that I might be able to place higher today.

There were only two heats today, one for women and one for men.  That meant most of the walkers in my heat were in different age groups.  I knew which walkers placed second and third in my age group yesterday.  Two years ago, at the National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, I finished ahead of both of them.  My goal was to beat at least one of them today.

I got to the stadium in time to see the women’s heat.  That also gave me a chance to see what the course looked like.



The course was mostly out-and-back, but there was a small loop at either end.  We started and finished in the middle.

The two men who finished second and third in yesterday’s race were Dan and Brett.  While talking to Dan before the race, I learned that Brett wasn’t doing this race.  There were only five men in my age group today.  One was David Swarts, who was much faster than anyone else.  Dan and I were likely to take second and third.  My revised goal was to see if I could outrace Dan for second place.

The fastest walkers lined up in front.  Dan and I were each lined up in the second row.  As we started, I kept an eye on Dan.  We each started at about the same pace, but Dan gradually moved in front of me.  Then, I did my best to stay close to him.

As we came around the loop at the south end of the course, I started to fall farther behind Dan.  Coming out of that turn, I was about 20 meters behind him.  After that, I picked up my effort to keep from falling any farther behind.

I trailed behind Dan but kept pace with him until we went around the loop at the north end of the course.  Then I started to close the gap.  I realized I could catch up to him.

I pulled alongside Dan just as we were completing our first lap.  He turned his head toward me and said, “Go get it.”  I knew at this point that Dan wasn’t too concerned about competing with me.  His primary goal was to get a medal.  He didn’t care as much if it was silver or bronze.

My time for the first kilometer was 6:22.  My average pace per kilometer yesterday was 6:15, so I wasn’t that much slower.  If I could keep up this pace, I could break 32 minutes.  I would be very happy if I could do that.

As we started the second lap, I moved ahead of Dan.  That made me a little bit nervous.  Was I starting too fast?”

When I made it around the loop at the south end of the course, I noticed for the first time how far ahead of me the leaders were.  I had nobody to chase.  The faster walkers were much faster.  I was the best of the rest.

It was easier to push myself when I was chasing Dan.  It was now much tougher to coax myself to go as fast as I could.

As I made it back to the midpoint of the course, I had completed 1,500 meters.  I had already gone as far as yesterday’s race.  I still had 3,500 meters to go.

After another 100 meters, I got my split for the first mile.  It was 10:25.  That was consistent with my one-kilometer split.

I did my best to keep up my pace, but with nobody to chase, I eased up a bit.  When I finished that lap, I saw that my second kilometer was 20 seconds slower than the first one.  It was now clear that I wouldn’t break 32 minutes.  At this pace, I wouldn’t even break 33 minutes.

I wasn’t going to catch anyone in front of me, but I had to remind myself that other walkers might be crying to catch me.  My best chance to see who was behind me was when I went around the loops at either end of the course.  The next time I went around one, I looked to see who was coming.  There were two walkers who were about 15-20 meters behind me.  One was Dan, but there was another walker who was just ahead of him.  I didn’t recognize him, so I was pretty sure he wasn’t in my age group.  I knew everyone in my age group.  Still, I wanted to stay ahead of him.

When I came back to the middle, I was half done with the race.  I forgot to check my time.  It didn’t matter that much.  I cared much more about my position in the race than what my time was.

The next time I came around a turn, I looked again.  The same guy was behind me.  Dan was starting to fall farther behind him.

When I’m doing race-walk training, I think a lot about my mechanics.  I think about things I can do to go faster, like increasing my cadence, or rolling through my toes as I push off my trailing foot.  Today, I didn’t think about any of that.  I just thought about my pace and my effort.

The only aspect of my form that I thought about was keeping my knee straight on my supporting leg.  That’s a rule in a judged competition.  I never think about it when I’m training – only in a race.

There were six race-walk judges.  Because the course was mostly out-and-back, each one of them would see us twice per lap.  On average, we were passing a judge every 50 meters, so we were constantly being watched.

The judges look for two things: are we maintaining contact with the ground at all times, and are we keeping our knee straight.

If you have both feet off the ground at the same time, it’s called “lifting.”  It’s pretty easy to avoid doing that.  If you’re lifting, you can feel it.  The only way you’re going to get flagged for lifting is if you’re blurring the line between walking and running.

It’s more difficult to avoid having a slightly bent knee.  Without being able to see yourself, you can’t know for sure if your knee is always straight.  When people get disqualified, it’s usually for bent knee.

When a judge sees a violation, they can either warn you or give you a “red card.”  If three different judges give you red cards, you’re disqualified.  They had a white board near the end of our circuit that showed the number of red cards of any competitor who had at least one.

Each time I was coming to the end of a lap, I looked at this board.  For the first two laps, there was only one guy with a red card.  By the end of the third lap, he had two red cards, and another guy had one.  By the end of the race, several walkers had red cards, and two were disqualified.

People who get red cards for bent knee are more apt to have it happen later in the race.  Their form begins to break down as they get fatigued.  It’s more of a problem for older walkers, whose knees aren’t what they used to be.

I always think about this in a race, but it’s rarely been a problem for me.  Here’s a picture my friend Anita took during the race.  It shows how straight my leg is as I’m making contact.

Early in my fourth lap, I got my split for the second mile.  It was 10:44.  That was 19 second slower than my first mile.  I tried to keep from slowing down any more, but I was getting hot.  The temperature at the start was only 70 degrees, but it was warming up quickly, and we were in the sun.  I was sweating pretty hard.

As I was nearing the midpoint of that lap, I heard a bell.  The leader was already starting his final lap.  It was David Swarts.  He was already about 600 meters ahead of me.

With a little less than a lap and a half to go, I glanced to my left and saw two shadows.  One was mine.  The other was the guy behind me.  Somebody was getting close.

That was the incentive I needed to pick up my effort.  Without knowing who was behind me, I wanted to get some separation.  The next time I looked to my left, I could see that our shadows were farther apart.

The last time I came around a turn, I looked to see who was chasing me.  It was the same guy who had passed Dan earlier.  I was starting to build a safe lead again.

With less than 500 meters to go, I pushed hard to pick up my pace and finish strong.  Before finishing, I got my split for mile three.  It was two seconds slower than mile two, but that’s not too bad.  Now I was almost finished.

I had been lapping several of the slower walkers.  There were three more between me and the finish line.  I managed to pass all three of them before finishing.  I finished in 33:21.

We had to wait a long time for the awards.  A few walkers were disqualified in each heat.  They had to give those walkers at least 30 minutes to appeal before they could finalize the results.  They also held off on the awards ceremonies for any age group that included people who were still competing in another event.  More than an hour after I finished, they finally did the awards presentation for my age group.  As I expected, I won the silver medal.


Before my race, I notice a little bit of tension in my left Achilles tendon.  I never noticed it during the race.  It wasn't until about an hour after the race that I even thought about it.

I’ve been feeling a little discouraged, because I knew my training wasn’t as good this year.  I was also a little discouraged when I didn’t win a medal yesterday.  My pace was a little slow today, but I’m very pleased to have finished second.  That was the best I could possibly have done.

This is the last year than the senior games will include race-walking events.  There’s another walking discipline called power walking.  It’s similar to race-walking but it has different rules.  If I want to continue competing as a walker in the senior games, I’ll have to switch to power walking.  I’m not sure at this point what my future plans are.  I need to make sure I understand the rules.


Race statistics:
Distance:  5000 meters
Time:  33:21
Average pace:  6:40 per kilometer (10:44 per mile)
Place in age group:  second

1 comment:

  1. Thank you for this report. I have posted video & photos mostly of the race walk

    ReplyDelete