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