Robert Heffernan: A Racewalking Legend At The NYRR Millrose Games

By Elliott Denman 

There's no doubt about it. 

If only the NYPD were to agree to grant Robert "Robbie" Heffernan immunity from potential jaywalking charges, the 35-year-old Irish walking star could easily take a cross-Manhattan stroll, river-to-river, Hudson-to-East, or the reverse, speedier than any crosstown bus, taxi, stretch limo, tourist double-decker, or motor vehicle of any description, could possibly do it. 

And he'd hardly be breathing heavily when he got there from that relatively short excursion; not only that, he'd be ready for a serious, heavy-duty training session over some much longer distance.

The whole perimeter of Manhattan Island, for instance.

That's roughly 50 kilometers, and 50K is exactly 31 miles and 120 yards, and that's the kind of challenge Heffernan really prefers. That's the distance he walked in three hours, 37 minutes and 56 seconds last August to win the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships of Track and Field in Moscow.

Get this: each of those 31 miles took only a tad more than seven minutes, and he reeled them offat a faster pace than an average Manhattan pedestrian could manage going from 49th to 50th.

In Moscow, not only did he win the longest, toughest event on the World Championships program (it's nearly five miles longer than the marathon) but he beat some rough Russian rivals intent on snaring the gold for the home team on their own Luzhniki Park turf.

(Oh, he'd also have walked through the marathon distance in about 3:04, meaning he'd have walked 26.2 miles faster than  some 44,000 in the ING NYC Marathon ran it last November.)

With the win, and the gold medal, Heffernan became an instant celebrity in his homeland. Ireland had won just two World Championship finals in the 13 previous editions of the outdoor worlds and now the Cork man was right up there with Eamonn Coghlan (who'd won the men's 5,000 meters at Helsinki in 1983) and Sonia O'Sullivan (who'd taken the women's 5,000 at Goteborg in 1995.) (In another sense, he was up there all alone - as the lone non-Villanova-trained athlete to win it all for Ireland on the world stage.)

Heffernan returned from Moscow as a conquering hero and has been properly treated with full celebrity status ever since.  

And now for the even better news - Robert Heffernan is coming to the NYRR Millrose Games Saturday night at The New Balance Track & Field Center at The Armory.

Invited by NYRR Millrose Games meet director Mr. Ray Flynn, himself one of Ireland's greatest trackmen, Heffernan will toe the line in the Susan Rudin USATF National Championship 1-mile walk. It will start precisely at 1:31 p.m. (that number 31, as in the 31 miles of the 50K, keeps on popping up) so Millrose fans should be advised to get there early lest they miss what can be a sensational event.

Arrayed against Heffernan will be Swedish champion Andreas Gustafsson (himself a 50K specialist), multi-time American champion Tim Seaman of NYAC, defending champion Jonathan Hallman of Shore AC, national 5K champion Richard Luettchau of Shore AC, and more. 

Racewalkers have been expressing their gratitude to Mrs. Rudin for her ongoing sponsorship of this event for many years. Since Mrs. Rudin is a racewalker herself - with a record of many international marathon walk completions to her credit - the "thank you" notes have always flown in both directions.

A mere one mile - or just over eight laps at the Armory - is far too short a distance for an athlete like Heffernan to display his true talents.  But he's delighted to be here to be a "sprinter" nevertheless.

As soon as it became official that he was coming, Heffernan messaged his friends: "Just got an invite to the "Millrose Games" in New York in February. Really honoured as it's a huge opportunity for me to showcase race walking at the top level in such a prestigious meet."

This is the 107th edition of the classic NYRR Millrose Games and the 48th time that a racewalk has been on the card.

Yes, there have been some strirring episodes of walking duels here over the years. Italy's famed Ugo Frigerio - a multi-medaled Olympian - delighted Millrose fans in the 1920s. Henry "Hank" Cieman came down from Canada in the 1930s, breaking records, and nearly walked off with the Millrose "outsanding athlete" trophy.

After a long absence from the Millrose program, the walkers climbed back aboard and got the crowd going with Shore AC star Todd Scully's epic 5:55.8 mile walk triumph in 1979. It was a barrier-breaker walk fans compared to Roger Bannister's 3:59.4 mile performance in 1954. Until Scully - famed for walking not in track flats but his noted "Hush Puppies -no human had ever walked one mile under official circumstances in under 6 minutes.   

In 1988, the world indoor mile record took a real walloping - Tim Lewis chopped it down to 5:33.33. And that's where the mile walk standard has stood for 26 years.

Can Heffernan go faster? Can Gustafsson? Can Seaman? Can anyone? (And still pass the muster of the judges' panel checking walkers' technique every step of the way.)

For sure, racewalkers rarely get the credit they deserve.  A few years back, when Olympic/World champion Jefferson Perez came to town for some racing in Central Park, hardly anyone noticed. Who was that guy beating out a faster tempo than all those clop-clop-clopping hansom-horses?  

Just three racewalkers hold membership in the Armory's National Track and Field Hall of Fame - the late, great Henry Laskau, and Ron Laird, New Yorkers both; along with Missourian Larry Young, twice an Olympic 50K bronze medalist.

In recent years, American male racewalkers haven't been close to the top in international competition.  Well, Saturday's the day Americans get to see a visiting great and admiring U.S. officials will keep asking themselves, "why can't we develop a Robbie Heffernan of our own?'   

A reminder to all: Come early to see all this. The gun will sound at 1:31 p.m. And the winner will cross the line about 1:36:45. Maybe sooner.

Actually, the men's mile walk is the second half of a Millrose twin walk bill.

The women's USATF National Championship 1-mile walk goes off at 1 p.m. sharp. Expected leaders are Long Island Olympian  Maria Michta and Canadian champion Rachel Seaman, Tim's wife.  This will be just the eighth appearance of the women walkers on the Millrose schedule. But, as Maria Michta and Rachel Seaman will tell you, they're anxious to catch up.