April 26th, 2008, start of 3K/5K racewalk at West Seattle stadium. A nice day and fast times. Also had a well attended 10K.

NEWS - Home Page

2012 NEWS - Change in affiliation

We have decided on the future of the Pacers. We will be integrating into Club Northwest and race under their banner. They are club number 36-0116 for your USATF registrations for 2012. This should work fine unless you have a several year membership already so don't need to register again for 2012 which then requires a change at PNTF to update the association records. As this should affect only a few, just let me know about this and I will forward to PNTF to update the records there.

Here is the CNW membership link. Club Northwest Cost is $50 annually and you get a nice navy blue performance fabric CNW shirt the first time you join. There are also event discounts, Northwest Runner subscriptions, and other benefits of membership.

For now, I'll continue to publish the Website, and hold the monthly informal races and clinic at Green Lake. I'll also continue to sit on the PNTF board as the racewalk chair and also attend CNW meetings as needed to help organize our events and races.

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.

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MOURNING - Bev LaVeck-McCall 1936-2011 In Memoriam Page____________________________________________________________________

The question of racewalking shoes always comes up at our races. Currently we like: (There are no current racewalk shoes on the market so we use running racing flats and lightweight trainers. Here are some options below. I would also check ebay under "racing flats" for better prices. I've found a variety of appropriate shoes there.) Remember, since you are not getting off the ground in racewalking, you do not need as much cushioning as running shoes. You want a better "feel for the road" to get the rolling motion of racewalking.

Things to look for are: low profile sole, low heel, (we don't need much cushioning to walk), flexible toe area (most racing flats will have this) and full, flat sole, without much cutout or concave area. See my notes on glue gun solution to the concave area if needed.

Adidas has several current models that look good. AdiZero Pro4, and AdiZero Rocket look the best of their current shoes.

Mizuno Musha 3 and 2 (replace Revolver series). This is a brand new model and replaces the Revolvers that I liked. This is a little firmer than the prior models but looks good at first try. Will report more once get a few more miles on them. The new 2 models are bright blue and the 3 series is red and green. If you can find the older Musha 2 they should be cheaper.

The Saucony Grid Type A4 is this season's racer and looks good in several colors. The ASICSGel Hyper Speed 4 and Gel-Piranha SP3 look to be the best of that brand, with the 3 very lightweight so probably good for track races.

In lightweight trainers, try the ASICS Gel DS Trainer 16 or the Adidad adiZero Mana which is more reasonably priced.

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 or Shoe Goo 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:

USA Track and Field (USATF)
Pacific Northwest Track and Field Assoc. (PNTF)
Club Northwest, Seattle
Racewalkers Northwest (Oregon Group)
The Sports Arena
Racewalk.com Site
Racewalk International
North American Racewalking Foundation
World Class Racewalking
Boomerwalk site
Racewalk Clinic Site
Vancouver Racewalkers

Stan Chraminski, Webmaster

Updated 5-12-2012