Walking fast – you don’t grow up as a child thinking ‘ooh I really, really wish I could walk fast’.

Marathon – nope not for me.
10k – nope.
5k – nope.
Walking fast – yep that’s the sport for me!! It’s so awesome.

Does it attract people who are always late for a train but don’t want to break into a run?

Are there talent spotters in shopping centres?

It is indeed a bizarre thing. Most of the sports at the Olympics have some sort of grass roots participation. There are athletics,cycling,sailing etc clubs all over the place with regular events but I’ve never heard of speed walking clubs or events outside the big meets. Maybe I’m just moving in the wrong circles?

I’ve never heard of speed walking clubs or events outside the big meets.

http://www.racewalkuk.com/Home.asp

Someone who has experienced a bad dose of the trots a long way from a toilet?

http://www.racewalkuk.com/Home.asp

The Google fu is strong with this one…

I didn’t say there weren’t any but that I hadn’t heard of one which suggests a pretty low profile sport.

It is a strange one. I mean, if you want to get somewhere quickly on foot, you run.

I guess it’s no different from some of the rubbish swimming strokes in that respect though – why butterfly when front crawl is better in every measurable way?

Malcolm in the Middle ,did a classic episode about speed walking, where they were wearing skin suits and aero helmets :-)which sums it all up nicely.

I can think some more rubbish olympic sports.

Name one

Name one

Dressage obviously.

That Malcom in the Middle episode made me nearly wet myself.

It’s kids that were bullied at school, isn’t it?

If they saw the bully in the school playground they would try to walk away as fast as possible without drawing attention to themselves, which running would have done.

Then, later, they discover they can walk faster than anyone else – so they decide to either take up the sport and compete, or buy trousers that are a bit short in the leg and get a job in IT.

I’d imagine race-walkers are the equivalent of opticians in the thoroughly scientific and wholly factual “failure to become a GP hierarchy” where GP = the cooler than cool 100m sprinters:

GP
Dentist
Pharmacist
Vet
Optician

Not sure where Podiatrists fit into this.

Harder to get into vet college than medical school!……just saying! 😀

“failure to become a GP hierarchy”

I knew a careers adviser at a private school who was constantly having to deal with pupils who wanted to be doctors (often because that’s what their parents were) but weren’t bright enough. Her stock phrase was’have you considered a different branch of the caring professions?’

TBH they look like a lot of the middle markers towards the end of a typical mass participation marathon. Though they are going a bit quicker. My wife jokes that I hardly get both feet off the ground when running, I wonder if I shoud give it a go as I’m about their speed.

Dressage obviously.

No not dressage. Probably golf or football. Definitely synchronised swimming.

It looks so unnatural, uncomfortable and well, bonkers frankly

careers adviser

And there I was mocking opticians…

We had to do walking races at school along with all the other field and track events. I guess if you were good at it you’d maybe pursue it further

Guy i worked with a few years ago got as far as trials for the commonwealth games. He took it up after he half crippled himself running marathons.

Then he got a new injury and half crippled himself again.

Now he’s knees are shot and his hips have gone. So he took up cycling.

Now he’s knees are shot and his hips have gone. So he took up cycling

Once he’s too physically wrecked for that – he can always come here and just talk about it! 🙂

I reckon the sport just needs the nifty addition of trekking poles in order to explode in popularity in the UK!

I had a boss who is a 4 time US Race Walking Champ and represented the US at the Beijing Olympics.

Top chap and completely normal. But then I didn’t know about the walking thing until after he was my boss.

No good if your nose is running.

I’ve done a few audax events run out of the HQ of the Leicester race walking club – it’s shared with a cycling club.

Lots of old newspaper clippings framed on the walls of past club triumphs. From the haircuts, mostly mid 1960s-1970s.

The walkers no doubt think riding a bike is odd.

Name one

golf.