Buy shoes: Very few local shoe stores sell anything resembling racewalking shoes. Most walkers resort to buying from catalogues. Among the best known and most racewalker-friendly are Sports 'N More, Eastbay, Hoys and Road Runner Sports. They all sell excellent running "racing flats" as well as real live racewalking shoes, usually at discounted prices.
Sports 'N More:(800) 397-5480
Eastbay: (800) 826-2205 www.eastbay.com
Road Runner Sports: (800) 551-5558 www.roadrunnersports.com
Get on-line: There is a group of about 500 racewalkers worldwide hooked up to a racewalking interest group. You'll find race schedules and results, experts to answer your racewalking-related questions, and reams of mindless chatter. Sign up by sending a blank e-mail message to:
racewalking-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
There's also a marathon walkers group at:
marathonwalkers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
And I have a World Class Racewalking Clinic alumni group at:
DavesWorldClassRacewalkingClinicAlumni-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
I also have a clinic alumni group on Facebook. Get there via http://tinyurl.com/WCR-Facebook
See how you rank! Tom Higbie compiles race results for masters (over age 40) racewalkers and posts them to the web at www.mastersracewalkrankings.com
Surf the Web: There are a growing number of racewalking web sites. My site, Dave's World Class Racewalking, has clinic information, articles, news and race results, an elite athlete photo gallery and links to lots of other walking-related sites. The address is: www.racewalking.org
Read all about it:
The Ohio Racewalker is a real "underground" publication, but very informative. It's a steal at $12 per year (12 issues). Race calendar, results and articles about racewalking can be had by sending $12 to Jack Mortland at:
Ohio Racewalker
3184 Summit Street
Columbus, OH 43202