USATF Championships: Final thoughts and numbers

Some final thoughts and numbers (always with the numbers) on Katie Miale’s gutsy effort last night at the USATF 20km racewalk at Drake Stadium. Below are Katie’s 1600-meter splits. I was eager to type all 50 lap splits (I could still do that, if there is a groundswell of support for such minutia … and if you are REALLY interested, each lap split can be found at www.usatf.org), but I figured the 1600-meter splits tell the story a bit more succinctly. The second half of the race was truly a slog for Katie, but she hung in there and finished. More telling are the numbers below the 1600-meter splits. Despite relatively favorable conditions, all but one of the 11 finishers – including race winner and American record holder Maria Michta-Coffey – had slower finish times than their entry seed/qualifying times. And Katie’s delta wasn’t even the greatest – four racewalkers raced slower than their seed times than Katie did. This is not to say that Katie had a “good” race or that she raced “well” – I like a positive spin as good as the next guy, but I also don’t peddle in such Pollyanna gibberish. But the numbers are stark and the racewalkers, for the most part, walked slower than anticipated. I don’t pretend to be a racewalk expert or even a keen observer, but a few theories: 

1. It was sneaky humid. Hey. Des Moines in late June could have been MUCH worse – the last time we were here, for USATF Juniors, the real feel at race time was 90 degrees, at 9 p.m. But last night, despite the comfortable feeling for non-racers, the walkers were soaked in sweat over the final laps and the humidity level crept up on them.

2. Track. Most 20km racewalk events are on a closed road loop. Along with being mind-numbing, 50 laps and all those turns may have added a lot of torque to their hard churning legs and led to slower times.

3. Night race. Most long racewalk events (20km, 50km) are held in the early morning rather than the early evening. Like all finely tuned athletes, racewalkers are a creature of habit. They’re used to plying their trade in the early morning hours in empty stadiums or equally empty and desolate road loops. Racing at night might have thrown them off. Again. These are just theories from a guy who still learning about the funky little outpost of track and field known as the racewalk.

Which brings me to the final point: We love being known as a “racewalk school” – whatever that means! We are proud of our racewalkers, past and present, and we welcome the opportunity to support current and future racewalkers. This is not lost on the racewalk community, and it was noted repeatedly both last weekend at USATF Juniors (Lauren Harris) and this weekend (Katie Miale). NCAA Division I track programs don’t usually support racewalkers. Racewalking is not an NCAA event. But Marist is a fine school, and we want to afford the opportunity for all athletes to get a great education at a great school, and we’ll support our excellent racewalkers in whatever USATF events they qualify for, now and in the future. So if they want to call us a “racewalk school?” I’m OK with that!

USATF Outdoor Championships

Friday, June 22, 2018

Drake Stadium

Des Moines, Iowa

Women’s 20,000-meter racewalk

11. Katie Miale 2:01:07.87

1600m splits

1: 8:51 (8:51)

2: 17:53 (9:02)

3: 26:45 (9:02)

4: 35:51 (9:08)

5: 45:25 (9:34)

6: 55:10 (9:45)

7: 1:05:05 (9:55)

8: 1:14:53 (9:48)

9: 1:24:51 (9:58)

10: 1:35:09 (10:18)

11: 1:45:38 (10:29)

12: 1:56:14 (10:36)

Finish: 2:01:07.87 (4:52.13)

Race finishers

Differential between seed time and finish time

1^st place: +3:12

2^nd place: +0:32

3^rd place: +6:02

4^th place: +3:01

5^th place: +1:54

6^th place: -1:12

7^th place: +10:41

8^th place: +4:10

9^th place: +5:04

10^th place: +6:49

11^th place: +4:39 (Katie Miale)