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Local professor writes book on racewalking

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FARMINGTON – Walk, don’t run, to Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers to check out a new book soon to be in the backpacks of thousands of students.

University of Maine at Farmington’s Professor Tom Eastler says he wrote “Racewalking! Fun?” to promote the sport among elementary students. The book, which is colorfully illustrated by Vern Mauk and published by Bedazzled Ink, is available both locally and online.

“It’s the first book ever written for elementary students,” Eastler said. “No one has ever done this for kids.” 


Professor Tom Eastler (left) signs a book for fellow racewalking enthusiast Randy Easter at Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers on Saturday.

The book introduces the sport of racewalking, a long-distance athletic event in which the participants must maintain contact with the ground at all times. The two children in the book learn about racewalking from their teacher, who works at Mallett School. The book then goes on to illustrate some racewalking exercises.

Promoting the sport is nothing new for Eastler, who is the UMF racewalking coach and was the driving force behind getting the Maine Principals’ Association to authorize the first high school racewalking event in the state, back in 1990. Now, 18 years later, Maine is the only state in the country which has both boys and girls high school track teams participating in racewalking events. Along the way, 147 All-American Awards have been given to more than 50 racewalkers in 27 schools.

Eastler’s children are also heavily involved with the sport. His daughter, Gretchen, competed in the Olympic trials for the 2004 Sydney games. His son, Kevin, has represented the United States at both the Athens and Beijing Olympic games.

Eastler began the book project when another racewalking enthusiast called him up from southern Texas soon after Eastler returned from the Beijing games. A.C. Jaime, of the South Texas Walking Cub, had convinced local schools to consider starting a racewalking program, starting with 13,000 students at the third-, fourth- and fifth-grade levels. Hoping that getting kids hooked early would help fuel an eventual high school racewalking competition, Jaime promised an instruction-like children’s book to introduce the concept.

Then he called Eastler.

“He called and said, ‘we need a book, quick!'” Eastler recalled. “Can you write one?”

So he did. Eastler says actually writing the book took only two hours. Then came weeks and weeks of proofreading with local teachers at Cascade Brook School and professors at UMF. The book was published through a company owned by another racewalker and illustrated by yet another enthusiast of the sport.

Eastler hopes to see the Texas project as the beginning of a surge of interest in the sport. He noted that racewalking is a low-impact, endurance exercise that anyone from young children to senior citizens can participate in. It doesn’t require and specific equipment or uniforms, and athletes are far less likely to be injured.

The book may help the sport in more ways then one. The profits from Eastler’s work will go toward funding the National Junior Elite Racewalking Endowment Fund, which Eastler created. That fund, which is managed by the North American Racewalking Institute, helps college-age and younger students train for international competitions. Eastler recently became the president of NARI, which provides funding to support students interested in participating in the Pan American Cup, World Cup, Olympic Trials, or Olympic Games.

This isn’t the final book for Eastler, who is currently working on a book introducing surficial geology to elementary students, tentatively entitled “Chester Quartz and Freddie Feldspar take a trip to the Beach.”

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