Welcome to the Taranaki Race
Walking Club website.
As its name suggests the Club is all about race walking be it either competitive race walking or competing in walking events.
The Club’s competitive season runs from April to October each year. During this period there are series of Club events. Members also participate in NZ Athletics events and Masters events. Club events are held on Sunday mornings.
During the summer months members tend to focus on race walking as part of the Taranaki Athletics programme.
As well as the formal programme the Club has informal walks throughout the year. On Tuesday and Thursday nights members gather and walk for about an hour starting at 5:30pm. Tuesday nights can also involve members walking with the Energy City Harriers or race walking at the athletics track in Inglewood. On Saturdays members gather at 7:00am to undertake longer walks – usually 1.5 to 2 hours but at certain times of the year these can be longer.
Many of the Club events are handicapped so that anyone of any ability can win if they walk well on the day.
The club welcomes and caters for members of all walking abilities. Having said that we generally focus on walking fast, for our age, and on improving our technique to walk faster. Generally all styles are acceptable but we do encourage members to work towards complying with race walking rules. In general terms there are two rule for race walking – one foot must be in contact with the ground at all times and your leg should straighten as it is planted in the forward stride.
As a general guideline walkers are welcome to join us at any stage. However we do suggest that you should have done some walking to a reasonable level of fitness – in this way you will enjoy participating in our events and you will benefit from learning to go faster. As a starting point we would suggest that you be able to walk 5km at at least 8 mins/km.
