chasingGLORY
Week One
Monday May 26
Entering the Crucible
At the championship level, the 20km takes just over an hour and thirty
minutes to complete. While the pain of a shorter race pierces, a 20k’s
pain penetrates. The 20k calls for management of the bodies' energy
stores. What takes thousands of miles to build will be burned to ashes
in just 12.4 miles. All that I was and am has been given to the road in
the hope of emerging as an Olympian.
This, then, the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s 20km Race
Walk in Eugene, Oregon on July 5, 2008 is the hero’s quest of old, told
anew. The 20k is the insidious withering of the will as the body
cannibalizes itself over time in an exchange of fitness for distance,
until finally it reaches the point where each step is a victory. For
athletes of the highest caliber, fitness is like a candle: It has to burn
brightly, but not too quickly. The race walk is a long burn, and it’s the
rate that becomes key. Whose rhythm best matches race pace?
Whose energy is being utilized most efficiently? That’s what we mean
by, “Whose day is it?”
Who can peak on a given day, and train to be very good at a particular
time—it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s tough to plan to be “on“.
World-class racers prepare their bodies through months of hard
training; they are locked into a world of rigor and regimen. They cock
their hammers back and then the starter’s pistol releases them to the
course. It is a combustible mixture when 16 women must reduce
themselves to an anointed three over a span of 12.4 miles. And when
the camera zooms in on the faces—because it is all right there, on
their faces—the 20k captures the imagination in the spark of
engagement.
For all the endorphin-saturated serenity that racing is said to produce,
at the highest level the 20k is a brutal game. In full extension the
questions besetting the athletes come faster and grow greater as the
distance piles on. Who takes the blow, then returns to the front to
make sure no one can rest once the surge dissipates? Who maintains
an even pace in the face of a surge. Who makes the first move? Who
makes the last? Goals become altered as miles turn to minutes.
The 20k is a cruel game, as the miles rob you of your wits just when
they are most required, when muscles revolt and the brain seeks
oxygen now shunted to pistoning legs. These are the moments that
challenge and inspire as the battle rages. You are already going hard,
then somebody makes a move. You don’t want to go, but you have to.
There is only this, and this is it for victory!
There is purity in this process that transcends a world wed more than
ever to fields of secular yields. The 20k is a contest unencumbered by
modern contrivance. It won’t be determined by luck, a turn of the ball,
or a referee’s arbitrary call. Rather, it will be settled by trial in the
crucible of all systems coming under fire. It has been this way since
the beginning, since gravity’s design of leg, lung, and limb. And though
training methods have been refined and equipment and surfaces have
improved, the outcome remains determined by women carrying no
more than what they first brought into this world, whips of sinew and
cudgels of bone.
Finally, this self-winnowing process will reveal the precious metal
within, glittering for all to see atop the podium, forged by the relentless
forces of time and distance. Arbitrary though it may be and borne of a
mythical tale, on a Sunday morning in July, as each woman toes the
line, their first steps will rise silently in the air as the battle of will
begins.
At the championship level, the 20km takes just over an hour and thirty
minutes to complete. While the pain of a shorter race pierces, a 20k’s
pain penetrates. The 20k calls for management of the bodies' energy
stores. What takes thousands of miles to build will be burned to ashes
in just 12.4 miles. All that I was and am has been given to the road in
the hope of emerging as an Olympian.
This, then, the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Women’s 20km Race
Walk in Eugene, Oregon on July 5, 2008 is the hero’s quest of old, told
anew. The 20k is the insidious withering of the will as the body
cannibalizes itself over time in an exchange of fitness for distance,
until finally it reaches the point where each step is a victory. For
athletes of the highest caliber, fitness is like a candle: It has to burn
brightly, but not too quickly. The race walk is a long burn, and it’s the
rate that becomes key. Whose rhythm best matches race pace?
Whose energy is being utilized most efficiently? That’s what we mean
by, “Whose day is it?”
Who can peak on a given day, and train to be very good at a particular
time—it’s a difficult thing to do. It’s tough to plan to be “on“.
World-class racers prepare their bodies through months of hard
training; they are locked into a world of rigor and regimen. They cock
their hammers back and then the starter’s pistol releases them to the
course. It is a combustible mixture when 16 women must reduce
themselves to an anointed three over a span of 12.4 miles. And when
the camera zooms in on the faces—because it is all right there, on
their faces—the 20k captures the imagination in the spark of
engagement.
For all the endorphin-saturated serenity that racing is said to produce,
at the highest level the 20k is a brutal game. In full extension the
questions besetting the athletes come faster and grow greater as the
distance piles on. Who takes the blow, then returns to the front to
make sure no one can rest once the surge dissipates? Who maintains
an even pace in the face of a surge. Who makes the first move? Who
makes the last? Goals become altered as miles turn to minutes.
The 20k is a cruel game, as the miles rob you of your wits just when
they are most required, when muscles revolt and the brain seeks
oxygen now shunted to pistoning legs. These are the moments that
challenge and inspire as the battle rages. You are already going hard,
then somebody makes a move. You don’t want to go, but you have to.
There is only this, and this is it for victory!
There is purity in this process that transcends a world wed more than
ever to fields of secular yields. The 20k is a contest unencumbered by
modern contrivance. It won’t be determined by luck, a turn of the ball,
or a referee’s arbitrary call. Rather, it will be settled by trial in the
crucible of all systems coming under fire. It has been this way since
the beginning, since gravity’s design of leg, lung, and limb. And though
training methods have been refined and equipment and surfaces have
improved, the outcome remains determined by women carrying no
more than what they first brought into this world, whips of sinew and
cudgels of bone.
Finally, this self-winnowing process will reveal the precious metal
within, glittering for all to see atop the podium, forged by the relentless
forces of time and distance. Arbitrary though it may be and borne of a
mythical tale, on a Sunday morning in July, as each woman toes the
line, their first steps will rise silently in the air as the battle of will
begins.
FEATURED ATHLETES
FEATURED ATHLETES
2008 U.S. Olympic Trials-Women's 20km Race Walk
About
On July 6, 2008, America’s
fastest women race walkers
will compete in the 2008
United States Olympic Team
Trials in Eugene, Oregon, to
select the U.S. women’s team
for the Beijing Olympic
Games. As part of an
unprecedented promotional
buildup to the race, Race
Walk Planet is proud to
present “chasingGlory,” a six-
week series of web videos and
text-based commentary
offering exclusive
athlete/coach interviews and
insight.
"chasingGlory" is a
production of Race Walk
Planet Television. Videos
produced by Chris Rael. Text
by Shirley Reynolds and
Dana Lee. Contributor Jeff
Salvage. New material will
be posted weekly, from May
26 through July 6, 2008.
fastest women race walkers
will compete in the 2008
United States Olympic Team
Trials in Eugene, Oregon, to
select the U.S. women’s team
for the Beijing Olympic
Games. As part of an
unprecedented promotional
buildup to the race, Race
Walk Planet is proud to
present “chasingGlory,” a six-
week series of web videos and
text-based commentary
offering exclusive
athlete/coach interviews and
insight.
"chasingGlory" is a
production of Race Walk
Planet Television. Videos
produced by Chris Rael. Text
by Shirley Reynolds and
Dana Lee. Contributor Jeff
Salvage. New material will
be posted weekly, from May
26 through July 6, 2008.
| Jolene Moore |
| Margaret Ditchburn |
| Susan Armenta |
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