Though race walking is an Olympic sport, it seems that much of the American athletic community does not measure it with the same seriousness as other sports. For example, sports commentator Bob Costa once compared race walking to “a contest to see who could whisper the loudest”. All joking aside, there are athletes all over the world in training to fast walk their way to gold.
Once called “heel and toe walking” for the strict standards placed on the gait, this sport gained widespread popularity after the Civil War. Competitors were of all races, creeds, ages and genders, and all were fast walkers. In 1884, there was a race in Louisville and the competitors, all African American men, fast walked in a two-day event for a total of about 100 miles each.
A front-page article in the Louisville Courier Journal in 1888 was focused on the training and health habits of several winning pedestrians. A Spanish champion featured in the article advised a diet comprised of fruits, vegetables and lean meats, while an American champion with a similar record seemed to favor mutton, steaks and chops, followed by Bass ale. Though it may not seem the healthiest diet, the American athlete claimed to run for two hours each day, and could fast walk at a clip of nine miles per hour. In a single race (over several days), he totaled 531 miles.
One of the champions of the sport was a man named C. G. Hubbell from Boone County. Though it’s unclear where he began his training as a fast walker, he moved from our area around the turn of the century and was at the height of his athletic fame after relocating to Pennsylvania. It was in Carlisle, PA, in 1907 that Hubbell was engaged in a curious exhibition race. The day after Christmas, a local roller-skating rink advertised the race between “Champion Heel and Toe Walker of Boone County, Kentucky: C. G. Hubbell” and Mr. Frank Herman, who was slated to compete on roller skates. The outcome is lost to history, but kudos to the confident Mr. Hubbell, whose career continued.
Two years later, Hubbell issued a challenge to anyone who was interested in the sport to join him on a fast walk. The goal was to raise interest and awareness in the sport rather than focusing purely on the competition aspect. He proposed a race from five to twenty-five miles (challenger’s choice) in a public space, where all could attend, admission-free. His crown was lost in 1909 to Charles Collins, who outpaced Hubbell’s nine-miles-per-hour pace by completing a 13.6 mile race 15 minutes ahead.
