Jack Bray, a 59-year-old gerontologist, teaches race walking classes and provides private lessons. He is ranked number one in the world among male race walkers aged 55-59. While some people laugh at the peculiar gait of race walkers, Bray advocates it as an alternative to running due to its lower impact nature. Now pain-free, he demonstrates how race walking can be both an aerobic exercise and competitive sport for people of all ages.

1. Race walking looks funny, but works
by Ralph Chatoian
Independent Journal reporter (1992)
Jack Bray doesn't mind if someone laughs as he struts by in his race-walking
gait. He just smiles back.
Bray, a gerontologist at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco and a
Greenbrae resident, teaches race walking classes at the College of Marin and
also offers semi-private and private lessons for the beginner.
The 59-year-old certainly has the qualifications for teaching his sport. He's
ranked No. 1 in the world among race walkers in his age group (55-59).
While some people giggle when race walkers strut by, arms pumping and hips
wiggling, Bray, who used to be a runner, says it's the only way to go.
"I was always an exceptional runner," said Bray, "but I used to wake up in the
morning with lower back pains and sore knees. I could hardly get out of bed. I
knew there must be an alternative."
That was just four years ago. In the short time since, Bray has developed into an
expert race walker. And part of it involves ancient Chinese healing arts. Bray is

2. a student and teacher of chi Kung, a Taoist healing art which, he says, "moves
vital energy through the organs, systems and tissues of the entire body. It makes
you more energized with more vitality."
In his younger days, Bray was quite a basketball player and received a
scholarship offer from John Wooden at UCLA but was drafted into the Navy
before he had a chance to become a Bruin.
Danced with Ginger
After his time in the armed service Bray received another scholarship offer, but
this time it was to the American School of Dance. He became a professional
dancer in the 1960s and appeared with Betty Grable, Ginger Rogers and Lisa
Kirk and was in more than 20 Broadway shows, including "My Fair Lady" and
"West Side Story," the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
When he started his race walking career, Bray obtained some videos of some of
the best race walkers in the world and studied them. Among those was Marco
Evoniuk of San Francisco who is in Barcelona as a member of the U.S. race
walking team. Both Evoniuk and Bray are coached by Frank Alongi of Dearborn,
Mich., who comes west each year to head a race-walking workshop for Bray at
College of Marin.
Bray teaches to all ages, his students ranging in age from 8-year-old Jared
Stoots of Tiburon to 92-year-old Daudee Douglas of San Francisco.
"I teach race walking to all people," said Bray, "You start when you are young
and carry it through your life. I have families taking the classes, and mothers
who will teach their children."
Bray likes to call race walking "the dance of life," and teaches his students to
walk with "a smile on their face," said Bray. "That's part of the Taoist practice.
The inner smile. You smile from your eyes to your lips, down to your heart, to you
liver, and to your kidneys. It move the energy through the body."
Rules to walk by
There are rules in race walking, and in competition a person can be disqualified
for not following them. The walker must have one foot on the ground at all times,
and the 'passing leg' must be straight at the knee. It is the improvement of this
technique that increases the speed. And it is this technique, which requires the
hips to move to and fro, that give the walk its peculiar look.
"It is the challenge of maintaining a legal technique as well as the drive to
improve one's speed," said Bray. "It makes it a sport of the mind as well as the
body."

3. Many of Bray's students take the classes for the sport's aerobic benefits rather
that to develop themselves for competition.
"Fitness writer John Poppy refers to race walking as the Rolls Royce of aerobics,
burning more fuel, or calories, than running at a comparable speed for the same
length of time." Said Bray.
"It is a superb sport of the over 60 crowd, helping participants maintain a good
range of motion in the shoulders and hips. A special benefit to senior women is
the gentle impact on hip and shoulders which signals the body to restore calcium
to those joints and help prevent osteoporosis."
Bray said race walking is wonderful for the heart and lungs and it builds strength
and endurance without adding bulk. "Because you glide instead of bounce, there
is no stress to the knees, kidneys or lower back."
And, he said, it is good for women of all ages. "It is the only sport that we know
of that diminishes cellulite in the thighs and hips."
A great exercise
Bray, a board member of the Marin County Heart Association, points out that the
sport also is good as a cardiovascular exercise.
"It is an excellent way to get the heart rate up," said Dr. Mark P Wexman, past
president of the Marin chapter of the American Heart Association and cardiologist
at Marin General Hospital. "It is especially good for older people and offers
exercise without the orthopedic trauma on joints and muscles and bones that
jogging causes."
Wexman, who is also an assistant professor of clinical medicine at University of
California San Francisco, said, "I appreciate what Jack has done. He is an
inspiration and a model of practicing what he preaches."
The lean Bray who appears much younger than a man approaching his sixth
decade, stands 6-foot- 2 ½ and his normal weight is 162 pounds. Because of
extensive training in preparation for a national meet, his weight is down to 155.
The meet he's training for is the TAC National Masters Track and Field
Championship in Spokane Wash. Aug. 13-16. He will be competing in the 5-
kilometer (3.1 miles) and 20-kilometer (12.4 miles) events in a meet that is
expected to attract more than 1,000 athletes. And around the corneris the World
Veteran Games in November 1993 in Miyazaki, Japan, where Bray will be
competing along with 8,000 seniors around the world.

4. Pace is rapid
The pace for expert race walker is very rapid, with some Europeans being
clocked in five-minute miles. Olympians can cover 50 kilometers (31 miles) in 3
½ hours and the world record in the 20-kilometer (12.4 miles) race is 1 hour and
18 minutes.
Bray said race walking dates back to the end of the 18th century in England.
According to his research on the subject, thirsty English gentlemen who were
gathered at a race or other outing would send their coachmen on foot to fetch a
jug of ale from the nearest tavern, perhaps a mile or two away. They would then
lay bets on whose coachman would return first. Of course the men could not run,
for fear of spilling the ale, and so they developed the curious strutting gait which
has progressed to modern-day race walking.
Bray's early teacher in race walking was Bill Ranney, San Rafael High School
teacher and coach who died unexpectedly in 1986 after exercising on a rowing
machine"He was my mentor," Bray said about Ranney, who was headed for the
1980 Olympics before the United States pulled out. "He told me I would be doing
7 minute miles sometime down the road, and now I am. I miss him very much."
He was 51.

5. “Fast Surpassing others as the aerobic exercise of choice”
by Joan Price
from an article in the
Pacific Sun Health and Fitness
Week of May 21, 1993
You've seen them speeding along tracks and trails, in parks and shopping malls.
Their feet skim the ground, their arms pump, sometimes their hips have that
funny roll, and usually they're smiling. They are exercise walkers, and they've
found a workout that's easy on the joints and adaptable to every fitness level.
Clearly, walking is good for health. It improves circulation, burns calories,
decreases stress, revs up both physical and mental energy, and makes you feel
good. But can you really get an aerobic workout just by putting one foot in front
of the other and admiring the scenery?
You bet. Just pick up the pace. As Harry Truman said, "Walk as if you have
someplace to go." Walk fast enough to drive your heart rate into target zone -
about four miles per hour for most of us, five miles per hour for hard-core
athletes. Add some attention to body alignment and technique, and you'll find
yourself working all the major muscle groups, including those that running
ignores. You get the same cardiovascular benefits as with running, but with only
one-third the impact. Not bad for a sport that's easy on the joints, light on the
wallet, and requires no equipment except shoes.
Racewalking is walking in its most advanced form requiring technique and
training. Racewalking has been an Olympic event for men since 1905; 1993 is
the first year for women. Racewalkers approach the speed of runners (and they
look like they approach the speed of light) with a five-minute 18-second mile for
short sprints and seven-minute mile average pace for 31 miles (50k). The race
walkers burn more calories than runners at the same pace though, because
walkers must keep one foot on the ground at all times, using more steps and
more muscle action.
World-class racewalker Jack Bray is 60 years young. (He doesn't use the o-l-d
word.) You'd guess his age at 40-something form his unlined face; vibrant
health; lean, muscled frame- and his seven-minute mile racewalking speed.
Bray's body is relaxed, his smile serene as his feet seem to fly just above the
ground like a cartoon character making a getaway. He points out that his hips
don't have the "dorky duck walk" we often see with Racewalkers.
Just voted "Most Inspirational Racewalker" byWalking magazine, Bray teaches
racewalking at the College of Marin and privately, and directs the Marin
Racewalkers which he founded. His racewalkers are aged eight to 83, and
several have had heart surgery. Bray's mission: to spread the joy and health of

6. racewalking, which he calls "the dance of life," to competitive athletes and
ordinary health seekers alike.
Bray started racewalking after years of marathon running. After his last
marathon, at age 55, he couldn't get out of bed. A month later, he was still in
pain. Now pain free, he's not only a champion racewalker, but his running time is
better than ever.
"If you pass a runner, say hello!" he instructs as they hit the trail.
"Walking takes people who are out of shape and puts them into shape," says
Herman Arrow, president of Mended Hearts, a heart surgery support group that
visits patients in the hospital and later helps to reeducate them about healthy
lifestyle changes. Many Mended Hearts members now racewalk.

7. https://westsidetrackclub.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/finish-line-
vol-29-no-3.pdf
Jack Bray doesn’t mind if someone laughs as he struts by in his race-walking gait. He just
smiles back.
Bray, a gerontologist at Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco and a Greenbrae resident,
teaches race walking classes at the College of Marin and also offers semi-private and private
lessons for the beginner.
The 59-year-old certainly has the qualifications for teaching his sport. He’s ranked No. 1 in the
world among race walkers in his age group (55-59).
While some people giggle when race walkers strut by, arms pumping and hips wiggling, Bray
who used to be a runner, says it’s the only way to go.
“I was always an exceptional runner,” says Bray, “but I used to wake up in the morning with
lower back pains and sore knees. I could hardly get out of bed. I knew there must be an
alternative.”

8. http://napavalleyregister.com/sports/mckay-qualifies-for-junior-
olympics/article_a9a38a2e-840e-57ba-a78f-cc3d27f91dc1.html
McKay qualifies for Junior
Olympics
Print Email
July 19, 2002 12:00 am • By MARTY JAMES
(0) Comments
NOTES AND QUOTES for a Friday in the Napa Valley:
* Dawn McKay, a senior at New Technology High School, recently competed at the Region 14 USA
Track and Field Championship in Union City. McKay placed first in the 5,000-meter race walk event
with a time of 32 minutes, 25 seconds and qualified for the Junior Olympics in Omaha, Neb., next
week.
McKay has been a racewalker with the Napa Track Club and currently trains under Jack Bray of the
Marin Race Walkers.
* The Napa Summer Shootout for boys varsity basketball teams takes place Saturday and Sunday at
Messner Gym. The host Napa Indians will be joined by Vintage, Vallejo, Deer Valley-Antioch, Wood,
Redwood-Larkspur, Armijo and Santa Rosa.
On Saturday, Napa and Vintage meet at 9 a.m., followed by Vallejo and Deer Valley at 10:10 a.m.,
Wood and Redwood at 11:20 a.m., Armijo-Deer Valley at 12:30 p.m., Wood-Vintage at 1:40 p.m.,
Armijo-Redwood at 2:50 p.m., Santa Rosa-Napa at 4 p.m., and Santa Rosa-Vallejo at 5:10 p.m.
Sunday's games have the same starting times.
* Napa golfer J.J. Jakovac lost in the second round of match play to Chris Stroud of Groves, Texas, 1
up Thursday at the U.S. Amateur Public Links at Washington Township, Mich. Jakovac, a Vintage
High graduate who attends Chico State, qualified with a 138 total and won his first-round match in the
U.S. Golf Association-sanctioned tournament.
* Forty players in the fifth, sixth and seventh grades are participating in the Napa High Girls
basketball camp. The camp was established to serve the community and better develop girls
basketball, said Jose Solis, a NHS coach. The camp is run by Napa High coaches as well as players
from the Napa High girls basketball team.

9. "The camp's main focus is to teach all the girls the fundamentals of basketball, to have fun and to join
kids from all schools and grade levels to play and learn together," said Solis. Other coaches are Tim
Chrisco, Darci Lewis and Jennifer Gigle, and NHS players helping out are Alexandra Good, Katie
Keilig and Nicoletta Geyer.
* Napa, the host team, will open the 2002 Pacific Southwest Babe Ruth 13-year-old Regional
Tournament on July 26 at 8 p.m. against Guam at the John F. Kennedy Ballpark.
Nine teams are entered in the double-elimination tournament, which begins Thursday and runs
through July 31, with the winner qualifying for the 13's nationals in Abbeyville, La.
Playing in Napa will be the Northern California Nos. 1 and 2 teams, Hawaii, Nevada, Central and
Southern California, and Utah. Arizona has pulled out of the tournament, informing officials it was
unable to field a team.
Officials said a grass infield is in place, weeding and painting is in progress and extra bleachers and
concession stands will be moved into place as the local Napa Babe Ruth League prepares for one of
the biggest baseball tournaments to take place in the city.
* First-year head coach Bill Callahan will direct the Oakland Raiders in their first practice of two-a-
days at training camp July 26 at Redwood Middle School in Napa. The team — veterans and all
rookies under contract — arrives the day before and will stay at the Napa Valley Marriott.
"I know the responsibilities that come with the job," Callahan said Wednesday. "It is a challenge for
me. But I don't get blown away by it. I know it's a job and I know what my functions are.
"But I keep a perspective about where I'm at and what I'm doing."

10. http://www.sfsu.edu/~sfsumag/archive/fall_winter_03/alumni4.ht
ml
SFSU Magazine Online Fall/Winter 2003 Vol. 4 Number 1
Walking the Walk
Jack Bray (M.A., '89), a world champion racewalker, is on the phone from his home
in Marin County, where he has just returned after setting a new American record for
his age group in the 5,000-meter road race at Kingsport, Tenn. At 71, Bray
competes among 70- to 74-year-olds. But if you were to see him, he insists, you
would not believe he is a septuagenarian. "I look like a chiseled body builder," he
says.
As if to dispel any doubts, Bray invited SFSU Magazine to meet him at the track at
College of Marin, where he trains and teaches racewalking. Bray shows up wearing a
turquoise warm-up suit over Spandex shorts and a tank top. If not quite Charles
Atlas, he is impressively tight and toned. At 6-foot-2 and 158 pounds, Bray has long,
sinewy legs, a buff chest, and hardly an inch to pinch except for a slight waistline
bulge that he blames on a weakness for Ben & Jerry's.
Bray attributes his enviable physique and good health in large part to racewalking,
the sport that has won him a drawer full of medals. A Broadway dancer and
choreographer before he came to San Francisco State to study gerontology, Bray is
ranked number one in his age group in the United States. In 1998, he set a world
record for the 3,000 meter indoor race in Boston, slicing 81 seconds off the old
record of 17:28.
Bray champions racewalking with evangelical zeal. He says it is the ideal sport for
baby boomers and beyond, providing all of the cardiovascular benefits of running but
none of the injuries. Bray was an avid marathoner until giving up distance running
17 years ago because of the toll it took on his body. In 1992, Bray founded the Marin
Race Walkers, which he says is the country's largest racewalking club.
Despite gaining in popularity, racewalking remains one of track's least appreciated
events, eliciting snickers for the awkward way the hips rotate from front to back.
Bray finds the butt-wiggle jokes tiresome. "If you're doing it properly, it's not funny
at all. It's smooth and beautiful," he says.
Bray proves his point by racewalking a few hundred yards, his wife of 14 years, Sue,
watching from the sidelines. He is remarkably fast and fluid. Though racewalking's
rules require that one foot be on the ground at all times, Bray's feet seem to hardly
touch the surface.
If anything, Bray is just getting warmed up. His sights are set on smashing another
record
at the world championships in San Sebastian, Spain, in 2005.
-- Adrianne Bee

11. I was interviewed for the first issue of Walk! Magazine in 2005.

12. http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2005/05/29/Senior-
Games-Jack-Bray-72-Marin-County-Calif/stories/200505290261
Senior Games: Jack Bray,
72 Marin County, Calif.
May 29, 2005 12:00 AM
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By Gary Rotstein Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
NATIONAL SENIOR OLYMPIANS TEND
to be better educated than their peers among the older population, but they've had all
kinds of careers.
Martin E. Kilmek, Marin Independent Journal
Jack Bray, a world-record race walker and former dancer, works out at the College of Marin, Calif. track.
Click photo for larger image.

13. Jack Bray, 72, looking to repeat as a race-walking gold medalist, put his feet on stage
instead of on track for 20 years as a dancer on Broadway and in touring companies. He
started as a boy in San Jose, Calif., by tap dancing with his older sister. Basketball
became a focus in high school, college and the Navy, but the 6-foot-3-inch Bray settled
into dance as a full-time calling in his 20s.
He worked alongside Frank Sinatra, Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett and many other stars
for years in New York and Hollywood and points in-between. The life of a "gypsy," as
cast members like him are known, required that he constantly stay fit, with an
emphasis on bodybuilding.
"I was doing something that I had a passion for," Bray said. "You worked matinees and
did six shows a week. The money was very good, and it gave one a chance to study and
continue along with your dream. You're constantly taking dance and acting and voice
lessons."
Race-walking became a passion in the late 1980s, when the onetime high school track
star wanted nothing more to do with grueling marathon races. Four-time race-walking
Olympian Marco Evoniuk introduced him to the sport, in which participants use a fast-
paced, odd-looking gait by following rules always to keep a foot on the ground and a
straight knee.
Bray can walk a mile that way in under eight minutes. His winning times at the 2003
national Senior Olympics were 7 minutes, 48.28 seconds in the 1,500 meters and
28.36 in the 5,000 meters. He was far ahead of his closest age 70-74 competitor in
both events -- no surprise, since he has been winning for years in national competition.
A race-walking teacher at three colleges in the Bay Area, Bray describes the sport as
one in which the body's muscle groups must be in perfect harmony. He is also a
proponent of an Eastern exercise program called qi-gong, which combines special
movement, meditation and breathing techniques. Between that and daily walking, he
feels much younger than 72.
"There's no such thing as slowing down if you're a master of wisdom," Bray explained.

14. http://www.marinij.com/general-news/20080903/jack-bray-the-
original-marin-racewalker-moving-to-wisconsin
Jack Bray, the original Marin
RaceWalker, moving to Wisconsin
By Dave Albee
POSTED: 09/03/08, 12:01 AM PDT | UPDATED: ON 03/19/2015
0 COMMENTS
JACK BRAY and his wife, Sue Blochwitz, moved from Greenbrae to Wisconsin last week and
the joke is they walked all the way there.
Not true. They bought a Prius and drove to Pardeeville, Wisc., where the married couple of
20 years will live in her parent's retirement home, a solar-heated earth shelter on 80 acres of
land in Sue's native state. That gives Jack, 75, plenty of space to stretch out and continue to
do what he does best - racewalk.
"It's exciting to know that after a period of years when you're steady you're ready to meet
anything in life," he said.
Bray is to racewalking - the quirky Olympic sport that requires you to move forward while
keeping contact with the ground at all times - what Jerry Lewis is to telethons. He always
seems to meet his goal no matter how old he is or how long he's been doing it. Among
athletes in Marin, Bray may have owned more national and world records than anyone. In
June, he broke the American record in the 1,500-meter racewalk for the 75-79 age group and
last month he broke two American racewalking records in the 5-kilometer and 10K events at
the Outdoor Nationals in Spokane, Wash., and then clocked a time of 17 minutes, 39 seconds
in setting a national mark in the 3K at the USA Track and Field Pacific Association meet in
Reno, Nev.
All told, Bray figures he has broken at least 20 national and world age group records in
racewalking. And he's not done yet.
"He's going to keep going until he can't," Blochwitz said. "I don't think he'll give it up. It's too
much fun."
OK, it looks funny when Bray pumps his arms and wiggles his hips in his racewalking gait.
But Bray is a serious athlete. He was a star basketball player growing up in San Jose and was
good enough to be recruited by legendary UCLA coach John Wooden. Unfortunately, the
Navy drafted Bray before the Wizard of Westwood.

15. Bray snapped up the next scholarship offer that came his way. The American School of Dance
recruited him to Obviously, Bray was fast on his feet but racewalking didn't enter the picture
until Bray was too hurt to run in the 80s. Lower back and knee pain forced him to seek an
alternative. He started racewalking about the time he discovered Chi Kung, a Taoist healing
art that, Bray theorized, spreads energy throughout his body.
It wasn't easy at first. Bray remembers a grueling 50K race in Carmel Valley that began in the
morning frost in February and ended in the noon heat. Blochwitz was there for that.
"That was five hours of walking. I was volunteering to hand out bananas and after five hours
I felt like a monkey," she said. "What was I going to do? Sit and watch this race for five
hours? I thought it was crazy all the way around."
Not anymore. Bray has become a master at racewalking and Blochwitz has been his greatest
fan and supporter. They co-founded the Marin RaceWalkers. She understands and
appreciates her husband's desire to chase the records.
"He really loves to get them, but the world doesn't end if he doesn't make it," Blochwitz said.
"He likes the challenge. It's entertaining for his mind."
And Bray has a sharp mind. He's a retired gerontologist. He taught racewalking and exercise
classes at College of Marin and plans to lead a racewalking class at the University of
Wisconsin this fall. He gives instruction and life advice and draws energy from his students,
who also learn Bray's qi gong beliefs.
"So we don't look at it as checking out at 125 (years old)," Bray said. "I told my students,
'You're all going to be here in 2050. I don't want to be alone.'"
Don't worry. They're on his side.
"He's a very positive person," said 52-year-old Kevin Killingsworth, a credit card company
management consultant from Mill Valley who took Bray's class and learned to racewalk.
"He's kind of a Type A (personality). He's extremely competitive. He's got incredible mental
toughness. That's what makes him so good."
Bray taught Killingsworth well. But not well enough.
"I used to beat him," Bray said, smiling. "Now, in a 150-meter sprint, I still can take him."
Bray always seems to be in excellent mental and physical health. The only time he recalls
getting hurt racewalking was when he slipped off a speedbump on a wet course in Southern
California. Otherwise, Bray has been a stand-up guy, a model figure for his sport whose
passion and perseverance helped lure many world-class racewalkers to visit Marin.

16. Now Bray is off to Wisconsin. He and his wife will travel to Delray Beach, Fla., for three
months in the winter as "snow birds" so Bray can hook up in person with his coach, Dr.
Frank Alongi. Bray said he would call Alongi on the telephone three or four times a week
from Marin.
With more time to spend with his coach and more time to train in Wisconsin, Bray already is
looking forward to the world championships in Finland next year. There's no stopping him
now.
"He's got a lot of mileage on him," Blochwitz said.
Bray figures he racewalks an average of 30 miles a week and he's been doing it for 21 years.
That's roughly 300,000 miles walked in his racing career and that doesn't count the cool-
down walks he takes with his wife almost daily. Bray finds motivation in expectation.
"I can wake up in the morning and know that I have an expectation of a workout and training
for the next race," he said. "If you have expectations, you don't let your mind stall."
That's Bray simple outlook on life. It's more a racewalk than a cakewalk and he's ahead of the
game.
Read more Ross, Kentfield & Greenbrae stories at the IJ's Ross, Kentfield &
Greenbrae section.
Contact Dave Albee by e-mail at dalbee@marinij.com

17. http://www.parksiderangers.com/news/2009/5/21/MTRK_0521090
659.aspx
THREE WALKERS EARN NATIONAL
QUALIFYING MARKS
Men's Cross Country | 5/21/2009 9:05:38 AM
Miranda Melville, last year's USA Junior (U20) Race Walker of the Year, completed her first
ever 20km Race Walk and earned the qualifying time for this year's championship that will
be held at the University of Oregon on June 27th. She will be joined by teammate Le'erin
Voss, who also met the standard for the event. A third member of the UWP program, Erika
Lamp, earned a mark in the Junior National Championship, held on the same day in Oregon
when she met the standard in her first attempt at the 10 km distance.
Melville was the overall winner of the event, the UWP May Race Walks, that was held on the
Petrifying Springs 2000m loop course on Sunday morning. The sophomore from Rush, New
York walked a time was 1:47:01. Runner-up in the event went to UWP junior Le'erin Voss,
the 3rd year athlete from Nashotah, Wis., walked a time of 1:49:10. Lamp is a freshmen from
Westosha Central High School, and covered the 10km distance in 58:43.
All three of the UWP women were able to complete their races with covering the second half
of the race faster than the first half. Melville earned a career best mark for 10km when she
walked the second half of the race in a time of 52:10. Last year, her best mark was 53:05, that
she walked at the World Cup Junior Championships in Russia.
On the men's side of the event, UWP alums swept that Top 3 spots and earned qualifying
marks for the USA Championships as well. Ben Shorey (1:28:47), Mike Tarantino (1:29:21),
and Stephen Quirke (1:30:25) completed the sweep of the event.
Shorey and Quirke compete for the Parkside Athletic Club and Tarantino compete unattached
and is currently residing in San Diego, Cal. Quirke and Tarantino each walked career best
marks by over 2 minutes.
In the Masters Division, UWP Coach Mike De Witt finished 2nd in the Over 50 division
10km event with a time of 56:23. He placed 3rd overall in the Master's Age Grading with a
mark of 80.50% and the overall winner of the Age Grade was Jack Bray, 76 years old of
Pardeville, wis., who scored at 85.47. Bray is a multiple World Record Holder in Master's
Race Walking.
UWP Coach Mike De Witt commented on the walkers performances on Sunday. "The
weather conditions were at optimum on the Petrifying Springs course. It was a great payoff
for the hours of training that the women have put in for the past 6 months. It is a young

18. group, with Melville walking her first year at the senior distance and Voss in her second year.
It was great to see them walk negative split races and look stronger as the event moved into
the later stages. It was nice to have the UWP men alums on the course as well. They did a
good job of working together helping walk as well as they have ever done."

19. http://journaltimes.com/sports/parkside-s-melville-reaches-
qualifying-mark/article_6342605b-5cd8-5270-9962-
40181c180621.html
Parkside's Melville reaches
qualifying mark
Print Email
May 19, 2009 12:00 am • By Journal Times staff
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Journal Times sports staff
UW-Parkside's Miranda Melville completed her first 20-kilometer race walk in impressive fashion
Sunday.
Melville was the overall winner of May Race Walks Sunday at Petrifying Springs. The sophomore
from Rush, N.Y., had a time of 1:47:01 and earned the qualifying time for this year's National
Championship at the University of Oregon June 27.
Melville will be joined at the national meet by junior teammate Le'erin Voss, who also met the
standard for the event with a time of 1:49:10.
A third Parkside walker, Erika Lamp, earned a qualifying mark in the 10-kilometer race at the Junior
National Championship in Oregon. Lamp, a freshmen from Westosha Central High School, finished in
58:43.
Melville earned a career-best mark for 10 kilometers when she walked the second half of the race in
52:10. Her best mark last year was 53:05, which she recorded at the World Cup Junior Championships
in Russia.
Meanwhile, Parkside alums swept the top three spots in the men's race and earned qualifying marks
for the USA Championships as well.
They were Ben Shorey (1:28:47), Mike Tarantino (1:29:21) and Stephen Quirke (1:30:25).
Shorey and Quirke compete for the Parkside Athletic Club and Tarantino competes unattached.
In the Masters Division, Parkside coach Mike De Witt finished second in the over-50 division. De
Witt covered the 10K course in 56:23. He placed third overall in the Master's Age Grading with a
mark of 80.50 percent.

20. The overall winner of the Age Grade was 76-year-old Jack Bray of Pardeville, who scored at 85.47.
Bray is a multiple World Record Holder in Masters Race Walking.
* Jessica Monson ran her first open 800-meter race of the year and was just .4 of a second off her
school record when she won the event at the North Central College Gregory Last Chance Open.
Monson was timed in 2:09.29, which met the NCAA II automatic qualifying standard. It was the third
event she has reached the time standard in this year.
Hope Christie placed eighth with a personal-best time of 17:48.33 in the 5,000-meter run, and
Whitney Olson won her section of the 1,500-meter run at 4:59.54, dropping under 5:00 for the first
time in her career.
* Carthage College has qualified three athletes for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field
Championship Thursday through Saturday at Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio.
On the men's side, junior Buzzy Brown qualified in the long jump and senior Jon Kochmit qualified in
the hammer throw.
Sophomore Heather Gilmore qualified in the 100-meter high hurdles in the women's division.

21. http://www.wiscnews.com/sports/running/article_2128072e-
beae-5255-8a41-6d95ffc39415.html
PHOTO: Walking the
walk
 Aug 10, 2009
Pardeeville's Jack Bray recently won five racewalking gold medals while competing in
the World Masters Athletics Championships July 28-Aug. 8 in Lahti, Finland. Bray
placed first individually in the 5K, 10K and 20K racewalks and won a pair of gold
medals as part of Team USA in the 10K and 20K racewalks. Over 5,000 athletes
competed at the WMA Championships, which are held every other year.

22. http://smalltownnews.com/article.php?catname=Accomplishment&pub=The
%20Akron%20Hometowner&pid=212&aid=51015
<< to Articles
SMALL TOWN NEWS
Accomplishment
Mike Wiggins Wins Gold Medal In Racewalk Event
By The Akron Hometowner staff
The Akron Hometowner of Akron, Iowa
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Michael Wiggins, president of Peoples Bank of Hawarden, recently
competed in the Master's Track and Field championships in
Helsinki, Finland.
Wiggins came home with a gold medal. He teamed with Rich
Carlson of Colorado and Norm Frable of Utah and they won the
gold in the 10K.
"This was my first time in the Masters. They have age categories
from age 35 up every five years (age groups)," said Wiggins, who
was in the 60-65 age group.
Wiggins had a couple of unknowns to conquer, his first 20K
racewalk, jet lag, and recovering from an injury. He rehabbed at
Hawarden Community Hospital.
"Norm told me if I came, he wanted me on his team," Wiggins said.
Wiggins' training, though, was limited by the injury. The highlight
was the gold in the 10K, followed by the silver in the 20K.
"It was great to hear our National Anthem in a foreign country.
Most of the crowd was friends and family of the competitors and
locals," said Wiggins, who returned last week.
"It is the camaraderie," he added. "Someone approached me at the

23. end who could barely speak English, and said, 'nice job.' He was
from Iran."
Weather was nice for race-walking, from the low 50s to the 80s.
In race walking, technique and speed are both important, and one
has to be watchful of the judges.
Wiggins thanks Jack Bray of Wisconsin, who is racewalking at age
75, for giving him some pointers.
Wiggins, who is nationally recognized as a leader in race-walking,
hopes to return to competition at a race in Sacramento, CA. Until
then, he will be training in and around Hawarden, at the West
Sioux High track, and on trails.
ORIGINAL PUBLICATION DATE: AUGUST 19, 2009
Copyright: © 2011 The Akron Hometowner Akron, Iowa. All Rights Reserved. This content, including
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