Race walker Harris following the path of Michta-Coffey

Brian Towey for DyeStat

Race walker Lauren Harris’ toughness cannot be understated.

But it took an unusual circumstance for Harris’ volunteer coach at Sachem East High in New York, Olympic race walker Maria Michta-Coffey, to realize precisely what she had.

“During the indoor county championship, we asked her to run on the 4x800-meter relay,” Michta-Coffey said. “She didn’t understand. ‘Other girls are faster’ she told me. ‘We need you for your toughness,’ I told her.

“After I saw her collapse at the finish of that race, I said, ‘That is the toughness of an Olympian.’”

Harris holds the national high school indoor and outdoor records for the 1,500-meter and one-mile race walks. She is also the 10-kilometer senior-class record holder, the distance for the race walk at the U20 level.

In a highly technical event like the race walk, mastery of racing form is crucial. Yet, it’s Harris’ ferocity, and her willingness to extend the boundaries of her comfort zone, which set her apart.

“You can try teaching technique and weight program and building that cardiovascular engine,” said Michta-Coffey, a two-time Olympian in the 20K race walk.

“But if the athlete doesn’t have that innate drive or that grit to bear down and be in a zone that could hurt (it won’t matter).”

Harris, for her part, agrees.

“(Looking back on that race) that experience, my pain tolerance (improved),” said Harris. “I guess I can be reminded of my new pain tolerance. I can be in this much pain early on and still finish.”

Harris’ roots in the event, same as Michta-Coffey, emanate from Long Island. Suffolk County is unique in that it contests the race walk at dual meets as well as at its county championship.

“The athletes in the race walk are all from New York because we have a high school program here,” said Michta-Coffey, a 2004 graduate of Sachem High.

“It’s treated like any other (point-scoring) event.”

There is one other critical piece to Long Island’s race-walking success: a race walk club team called “Walk USA.” Coached by Gary Westerfield, who has held race-walking clinics in Hauppauge since the mid-1970’s, Walk USA and Westerfield imbue local athletes with proper race-walking form and technique, while also exposing them to the event’s longer 10K distance.

“The kids who want to get better and the coaches who want them to get better, they send their kids to an open practice I hold year-round,” Westerfield said. “Some kids come one time and don’t come back. Those who come regularly usually join USATF and find out about longer distances, like at USATF Junior Nationals, where they do 10,000 meters.”

The result is a thriving race walk culture on Long Island, one that extends all the way to the junior national and national levels.

It was a collaboration demonstrated in May when Harris and her mentor Michta-Coffey went to Lima, Peru, to compete in the Pan-American Games, Harris at the junior national 10K distance and Michta-Coffey at the senior national 20K distance.

“Throughout the entire trip (Michta-Coffey) gave me advice, from what not to wear on the street to which water to drink,” said Harris, who finished 11th in her first international competition.

“And as always she gave me racing advice, like (the fact that) I had to be in front of the pack right away.”

While the partnership has thrived since Harris began race-walking as a freshman, this fall Harris takes the next step, to college. 

For most track and field athletes, it is a bittersweet juncture of their athletic careers, one that usually involves accepting an athletic scholarship at an NCAA school. For college-bound race walkers, considering that the NCAA does not contest the race walk, the transition is decidedly more complex.

“There’s no one formula for being a race-walker in college,” Michta-Coffey said. “Everyone has a slightly individualistic approach.

“I ran full-time cross country (at Long Island University-Post on a partial athletic scholarship) and then transitioned to race walking in the winter. I did that for the first two years, then decided to focus on race walking.”

Harris will take a similar approach, going to NCAA Division I Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to train with the cross country team, while also training and competing in the race walk (an alternative approach taken by some athletes is to attend an NAIA college or university. The NAIA contests the race walk as an event.)

“Right when I heard about Marist at the beginning of the school year I was kind of set on it,” said Harris, who will be coached by Marist women’s cross country and track coach Charles Williams.

“I applied to some other schools but Marist is the one school I was going to race walk for. The coaches will train me as a race walker. There’s a girl there (Katherine Miale) who is training for the 20K race walk, and having her to train with will be really great.”

Harris also considered NAIA schools, which offer athletic scholarships for race walkers, but wanted to stay closer to home (most she found are located in the Midwest or didn’t suit her academically).

The situation for race walking at Marist is uniquely attractive because typically NCAA track and field coaches do not guide race walkers on their training, many athletes work with outside coaches. And, perhaps more importantly, they rarely offer other athletes to train with.

“Race walking at an NCAA school involves having access to a track indoors or outdoors, a weight room, and coaches that support that (endeavor),” Michta-Coffey said. “(A situation where) they want to see you develop even though they’re not the ones giving you the workouts.”

Harris has already begun training for the upcoming cross country season with Marist.

As a race walker, she’ll compete in the 5K distance Aug. 20 at the USA vs. Canada Junior International Race Walk Match in Rome, Georgia. Michta-Coffey is headed to the IAAF World Championships in London for the 20K race walk Aug. 13.

“I’ve gotten this far by staying with the process,” said Harris, who was coached by Dan Schaub at Sachem East, in addition to Michta-Coffey.

“Listening to my coaches’ plan, doing the extra things, not just going to practice and going home. I go home and do an extra stretch. And I always eat healthy.”

Michta-Coffey sees the potential for great things in her pupil. And as a fellow Long Islander, one who has walked the same path all the way to the Olympics, she should know.

“She’s this good and this talented as a race walker,” Michta-Coffey said. “I cannot wait until we tap into pure exhaustion in the race walk to see how great she can be.”