Race walkers ring in Minnesota Senior Games
Aug. 12—Race walking done right can be a meditative experience, said Minnesota Senior Games athlete Karen Swisher.
The technical side of the sport rewards repetitive and efficient movement. Each leg resembles a piston propelling competitors forward around and around a track.
Meditation addresses the other, more mental side of race walking that Swisher appreciates just as much.
While keeping her legs and arms in rhythm, the Hudson, Wisconsin, woman finds herself trying to take her mind off how many laps she needs to go around the track.
She'll notice the breeze on her face or the trees around the track. Sometimes she'll listen to an audiobook.
During her 1,500-meter race walk Thursday at Minnesota State University, she turned to another reliable method.
"I have little ditties that I repeat to myself that all sync with my breathing," she said. "So the little ditties keep me focused and the breathing synced."
Her results show she's doing something right. Swisher was the second-fastest woman race walker, first in her age 70-and-up group, in the country at the National Senior Games in May.
She's one of 528 athletes competing in Minnesota's Senior Games, hosted in Mankato between Thursday and Sunday. Events for competitors age 50 and up range from table tennis to pickleball to swimming to track and field.
Mankato hosted last year's Minnesota Senior Games as well, a chance to highlight the area to hundreds of people, said Joelle Baumann, special events manager with Visit Mankato.
"The events are spread out in the community, so we really get to show what there is to do in the community," Baumann said.
St. Cloud will host the next two years before the games return to Mankato in 2025.
The race walks, 1,500 and 5,000 meters, were among the first events in this year's games.
Two rules distinguish race walking from running, said Bruce Leasure, coach of the Twin Cities Race Walkers group and a judge at Thursday's event.
1. Competitors must maintain contact with the ground at all times.
2. Leading legs must be straight as the foot makes contact with the ground and remain straight until the leg passes under the body.
Leasure's task was making sure the race walkers adhere to these technical requirements. Judges have to be sure both feet are off the ground to penalize a competitor — Olympic-level race walkers are crafty in pushing the boundaries.
"The fast people in the Olympics are so close to that rule that they're off the ground for a 30th of a second," he said.
He found the sport when looking for an aerobic activity that wouldn't be as hard on his joints about 35 years ago. Swisher had a similar introduction to the sport.
Running isn't an option for her thanks in part to a bum knee from a ski accident in her 20s, she said. She still liked to walk but had trouble getting her heart rate up enough to get a good aerobic workout.
One day she was walking a trail in Kansas and saw someone "walking funny." After looking into what the person was doing, she started power walking before getting in with a race walking group in Kansas City.
An 86-year-old man was her mentor, encouraging her to compete in regional and national meets. The sport fit what she wanted both physically, and, it turned out, socially.
"You tend to see the same people at national meets, regional meets, USTAF (USA Track and Field) meets," she said. "The social aspect of it is fun."
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