Race Walking: A brief history
Can be dated back four centuries.
Originated in England.
People once placed bets on race walkers.
Became an Olympic sport for men in 1908.
Was opened up to women in 1997.
Lois Dicker started race walking about 25 years ago to fulfill her quest for a fun, stress-free hobby. “I didn’t want to compete because I had stress in my work,” said Dicker, who never participated in sports before walking. “[Race walking has] always been about fun for me.”
Dicker was exposed to race walking while growing up in Pennsylvania, where she would join her father and watch the annual Penn Relays. Years later, when Dicker was in her mid-40s living in Silver Spring and working in chemical risk assessment at the Environmental Protection Agency, she read in the newspaper that free race walking clinics were being held on the National Mall.
“There was a big race walking community here then,” recalled Dicker, now 70.
Dicker attended the clinics and discovered not only that she liked the sport, but that she naturally had good form, which is critical for race walkers to avoid disqualification. Each race employs three judges just to monitor form alone.
Race walking has two rules: Keep one foot on the ground at all times, and never bend the knee as the leg passes underneath the body to take a step. Those factors contribute to the peculiar movement that is the hallmark of a race walker.
“It’s a great sport in terms of whole body,” Dicker said.
Race walkers use their arms more than their foot-lifting counterparts, moving them quickly and at right angles to increase speed. They step on the heel with their toe pointing upward while pushing off the back toe, developing the shin muscle while increasing ankle flexibility. They also take short, quick steps, which results in more hip switching and in turn works the abdominals.
But despite her naturally good form, Dicker was hesitant about competing because she didn’t want her new hobby to pressure her. It wasn’t until about a half-year after she learned the sport that she entered her first race — the Footlocker 10K, a six-mile running race.
“I found it was fun ’cause I wasn’t going to win a running race so there was no pressure,” she said.
Today, Dicker competes in 12 to 15 races a year, all but three of which are running races. She has three coming up just this month — the Jingle Bell Jog Sunday, followed by the Christmas Caper and the New Year’s Road Runners Race.
But despite walking her way through running courses, she never finishes last, and almost always places when she enters race-walking competitions.
Dicker typically walks in 5K or 10K races, which are unusual for race walkers because it’s traditionally a long-distance sport, with Olympic races of 20K or 50K.
If she is preparing for a big walking race, like the USA Track and Field National Masters Outdoor in July, Dicker will increase her training from every other day with one long — 10k — walk each week, to five days of training with a long walk every other day.
Even for those races, Dicker said she feels no pressure when she competes, because she is only competing against herself.
“I write [my times] down every time I go out. Every race is different and I enjoy doing them because it’s just having a fun thing to do.”
Yet, Dicker does not consider herself an athlete, despite competitively practicing a sport.
“I think of myself a race walker.”
