Aleiza Higgins, a rising senior at Jamestown High School in Williamsburg, became the AAU national champion in the 3000 meter racewalk on Sunday at Norfolk State University. Competing in the young women's division, Higgins posted a personal best time and 1 minute and 19 second improvement for qualifying performance with a final time of 17:39.58. Higgins won by a considerable margin of two minutes. More to come on Higgins and others performances by Virginians at the AAU Junior Olympics this week.
Interview with Aleiza Higgins
MileStat.com: How does it feel to win a national title?
Aleiza Higgins: I honestly can't really put it into words, but - awesome!
MileStat.com: Does it make it more special being that the meet was local and you could have more friends and family to watch you compete?
Higgins: Yes - it was kind of nice having them cheer me on, it helped me keep my pace up when I was getting tired and there were no other walkers near me.
MileStat.com: How tougher is race walking at the 3K distance versus the mile distance?
Higgins: It's harder, somewhat like going from the mile to the two mile in running.
MileStat.com: How did you first get interested in the race walk?
Higgins: I started out in 5th grade doing long distance at Team Flash and soon after that Ray Funkhauser came and did a clinic and i picked up on the form really fast.
MileStat.com: How do you train or prepare for the race walk?
Higgins: Generally i run XC and track year round for Jamestown which gives me the endurance. In the spring and summer i add racewalking practices to that. Race walking practices are similar to distance running practices except they also add specific exercises and warm-ups for racewalking.
MileStat.com: The event puts a lot of stress on your shins...what have you done to strengthen this year to decrease pain and possibly injury?
Higgins: In the beginning my shins used to hurt a lot but by now I’m pretty used to it. Plus there are specific exercises to help strengthen them, such as toe-lifts.
MileStat.com: The race walk is not often well understood event and sometimes the competitors in the event are ridiculed by other athletes in track & field. Do you have to deal with this often and how do you combat this?
Higgins: I used to have to deal with it a lot more when I was younger but I find that more people think higher of it now, although I do still come across people time to time who turn up their noses to it.
MileStat.com: How pleased were you with your time? You dropped almost a minute and half from your qualifier meet performance.
Higgins: I’m really happy about it especially considering I was out by myself most of the time with no one to push me. It would have been even better to have dropped that much from my prior pr but it’s still pretty awesome feeling!
MileStat.com: Is it tough having to wait until the summer time to compete in meets which actually offer the race walk?
Higgins: Yes, definitely. I really wish Virginia high schools competed in it so it would be easier to train year round.
MileStat.com: Do you wish that more colleges offered the race walk? Do you plan on still competing in the race walk post high school?
Higgins: Fortunately the NAIA schools do compete in racewalking and several schools have talked to me about giving me scholarships for it, so I definitely intend to compete throughout college.
MileStat.com: The professional race walkers compete at much longer distances. Do you feel you might even be more successful the longer the distance? How different is the training and preparation between the shorter and long race walk events?
Higgins: Yes, I think I will be successful as I build up to those distances. The biggest difference in training is some reduction in speed work and an increase in endurance training.
