April 26th, start of 3K/5K racewalk at West Seattle stadium. A nice day and fast times. Also had a well attended 10K.

NEWS

The Pacific Pacers Racewalk Club is Western Washington's largest racewalking group and is located in the Seattle area. We publish a monthly newsletter and sponsor events in the local area. See our schedule page for current and ongoing events and the results page for past events.

If you have news you want to share or need more information, email me at mystanski@comcast.net. See your articles on the web.

Bev is now been spending most of her time at her house in Mazama however she continues to publish the monthly newsletter and coordinate events and judges. Her email at Mazama is Bevlaveck@methow.com. If you want to sign up for the Pacers, it's $10 a year including the newsletter. If you want the newsletter only, it's $5. Contact Bev about these.

NEWS: 2009 National Masters Meet has been moved to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, tentatively the second weekend of July. Probably will be hot too but maybe not as bad as Florida, the earlier location.

The question of racewalking shoes always comes up at our races. Currently we like:

Adidas adiZero RC, DC, Adistar Competition (a favorite of Tommy Aunan and were on sale at eastbay.com for $49.99 so must be closing these out.)

Mizuno Wave Revolver 5. This is a brand new model and replaces the # 4 so I haven't tried it yet. The prior models are a little softer than most but flexible and with a continous sole and no cutouts to save weigh. This is my favorite shoe and priced at just under $80. The new models are bright blue to replace the bright red models.

I've also just received a pair of ASICS Gel-Hyper Speed 2 that feel good and are light at only 6.6 ounces. The Gel-Pirahna looks good but is 4.8 ounces so may be too flimsy. The speed 2's feel good and Gordon has a pair too and they are nice racewalking shoes. Run about $65-70 dollars.

Nike has several pairs that look promising. Zoom Katana Star and Katana Rac3r look like they would be good but are pricey at well over $100 a pair. Nike Zoom marathoner looks similar and is priced at $85. Stay away from the Nike Mayfly as it has no upper support. The Zoom Streak XC (cross country shoe) looks good too and is lightweight and priced at $65.

Some of the New Balance racing flats are similar to the old NB racewalk shoes so are an option too. If you have any reports on these, pass them along.

Recently suggested also is the La Sportiva Sling Shot shoe. It's a trail running-racing flat and inexpensive at amazon.com and Sierra Trading co.

I've found that some racing flats have too much of a cutout under the arch to save weight but I can fix that with a little glue from a hot glue gun to build up the low spots to get a smoother rolling motion throughout the stride.

If you have other recommendations, pass them along to put on our site.

Here are some links to other racewalking sites: There is a new link for NAIA (collegiate) walkers that has some great advice for walkers of all ages. I've listed it at the top of my links below.

USA Track and Field (USATF)
Pacific Northwest Track and Field Assoc.
NAIA (collegiate) racewalk site
Racewalkers Northwest
The Sports Arena
Racewalk.com Site
Racewalk International
North American Racewalking Foundation
World Class Racewalking

Stan Chraminski, Webmaster

Updated11-15-2008