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Karen Swisher, President of Heartland Racewalkers since December 2017, is moving to Wisconsin to be near her family in nearby Minnesota. HRW had a celebration picnic in Roe Park in her honor on Saturday, July 26. She gave a thank-you talk to show her love for our club members and heard from many of our club members in return. She was given a Shutterfly book with photos and best wishes from members. The book was a result of the efforts of Rich and Sunday Cavallaro, with photos and notes supplied by many members. To introduce the book, there is a special appreciation message from Alan Poisner that he read to Karen and those assembled. It is shown below.

The state motto of Kansas is “Ad Astra per Aspera”, to the stars through difficulty. Karen Swisher has been the shooting star of the Heartland Racewalkers for the past 6 years.

Karen burst upon our walking scene in 2015 and quickly made her presence known on the racing scene. In April she was on the winning Brew to Brew 43-mile relay team, in June she took first in a local road race that included runners, the Father’s Day 5K, and followed these successes with a Gold Medal in the Kansas Senior Games 1500 M (10:15). The age-graded result (AGR) from that race was 69.8%, that little foretold the heights to which she would rise in competitive racewalking.

In 2016 she took Gold Medals in the Missouri and Kansas Senior Games and the Sunflower Games, achieving 80.9% AGR in the 1500 meters (8:56) in the W 65-69.

2017 was a breakthrough year for Karen in which she won a Gold Medal in the USATF National Masters Indoor Mile in Albuquerque in February and set a record while beating the 2016 USATF National Racewalker of the year (in a dramatic finish). This was just a start for Karen since she later took Gold Medals at other national meets: the National Senior Games in Birmingham where she achieved another high AGR (83.2%) and the USATF National Masters Outdoor Meet in Baton Rouge with two more Golds-5K and 10K (in brutal conditions) and came away with an 86.2% AGR! She also collected two more Golds in the Kansas Senior Games; and just to cap off a remarkable year, she took first place in our club’s annual Be-A-Walker predicted time 3K race with a 4 sec prediction victory. In 2017, Karen was awarded National Masters Racewalker of the Year by the USATF in the 65-69 division, in just her third year of racewalking.

2018 found Karen taking on the leadership of the Heartland Racewalkers as President and expanding our club while again collecting Gold Medals in the Missouri and Kansas Senior Games.

2019 was another year of national triumph as Karen repeated as the 1-mile champion in the USATF National Masters Indoor Meet in Winston-Salem and beat her own record from 2017 and again beating her internationally famous competitor from Colorado. She repeated her two Gold Medal wins at the National Senior Games in Albuquerque and has the fourth fastest time that has ever been walked in her age division. She also took two more Gold Medals in the Kansas Senior Games and continued her unbroken successes in achieving AGR’s of 80% or more. That is the threshold for All-American status for the USATF.

Just as impressive as Karen’s racing victories have been her dedication and service to our club as President the last 3 years. The Heartland Racewalkers would not be where they are today without her expert leadership and friendship to all, including recruiting and mentoring new members.

The “Per Aspera” part of Karen’s walking career has included recovering from a broken arm that barely slowed her down. The “Ad Astra” part of Karen’s resume is the way she has shown us how to shoot for the stars while having fun and bringing along our grateful pedestrians.