On October 30th in Congers, New York in Rockland Lake State Park, the USA 30km Racewalk Championships were held in less than ideal conditions. With a major snow storm hitting New York and surrounding States the day before the race, we knew it was going to make for tough conditions on race day. With the temperature hovering around freezing overnight, all the snow that had started melting was frozen by morning. The race was originally set for 9am but had to be postponed to 10:20am so that the race course could be cleared off. It was a beautiful morning for spectators despite the cold but the weather was unsettling for most of the competitors with over a dozen from South America. Our TEAM stayed positive and were hoping for the best.
Nick, Bruno and Katie had the most successful day for the TEAM, all achieving PRs. It was Nick and Bruno's first try at the 20km distance and they were excited to work together to try and get the best effort out of themselves. They pushed the pace together and were on a strong pace through 15km's where Nick started to struggle with the pace and he dropped off but Bruno kept pushing and kept getting faster. Bruno finished with a stellar 1:35:37, bettering his previous 10km PR on the way. Nick also finished strong despite struggling in the final kilometers, finishing in a time of 1:39:05. This was his first time racing longer than 5km's! Katie who held on to Coach Tim and other walkers for most of the race, looked great! An error on the DQ board forced Katie to slow down around 15km's and we didnt notice till a lap to go that there was a mistake. If it wasnt for that mistake, she would have had an even bigger PR but had to settle with a great 30 second PR! Great performance for this time of year.
Coach Tim was having a great day despite the cold weather. He was staying patient in the early kilometers with a great group of competitors around him all going after the same pace. Early on he started to feel some tightness in his back and it kept getting worst as the race went on. Despite still being on the Olympic B standard pace, Tim decided to drop out at 38km's to not risk injury. This race showed great promise with his progress towards the Olympic 50km RW Trials in January.
"Little" Rachel was having a great day and was on pace for a nice PR before officials told her she was done the race when she really had one more lap to go. This was very disappointing for Rachel Z. since she would have had a PR by a few minutes but at least she knows that her training is going well and that the next time she has a chance to do a 20km race that she will take even more time off her PR.
Now the TEAM wont be racing for awhile but will be getting into some good training with some base work. We look forward to a strong season with several Olympic Trials qualifiers, National team qualifiers and Olympic Games qualifiers. Up next for the TEAM is the USA Racewalk training camp in South Texas on December 26-January 1st. If you want more information you can look
here. The next race for the TEAM is the USA 50km RW Olympic Trials on January 22nd in Santee, California, in the San Diego area.
Stay tuned!
TEAM
Yesterday at the historic Millrose Games, TEAM representative Lauren Forgues represented her new club, New York Athletic Club very well. It was her first time wearing their jersey and she dominated the race. 
