ABOUT US

WalkingHealthy.com is a collective effort by dedicated volunteers in the race walking community and our staff to promote the concept that walking athletically is the best form of exercise. Content on WalkingHealthy.com is contributed by U.S. National team members, race officials, our staff, and most importantly YOU! Send us information about events and clubs in your area and we will post it.

While WalkingHealthy.com is a free site, it costs time and money to maintain. The sales of walking-related products help to offset these costs. A great source of race walking information for novices, and experts alike, we encourage you to visit our Walking Shop and take a giant step towards reaching your potential!

Staff

Founder & CEO - Jeff Salvage

Jeff Salvage pursues his interests—photography, computer technology, and the outdoors—with a focus and intensity that can only be described as passionate. With race walking, this passion becomes an obsession. Whether he’s flying across the country to support and document a National Team race, pacing a protégé through a half-marathon, or serving up electrolytes through a rainy 50K, Salvage smiles through it all—typically with camera, cell phone, and computer notebook within reach.

Salvage claims that “no one who knew him as a kid” could conceive of his 20-year immersion in the world of athletics. But at age 16, he arose from behind his computer to join his high-school cross-country team. Salvage enjoyed running, but his knees gave out early. So when he started race walking his senior year of high school, no one expected much. Salvage surprised them all, breaking the 7:00 min/mile barrier and finishing second at High School Nationals his very first season race walking.

With his newly discovered “raw talent for race walking” as motivation, Salvage focused much time and energy on developing his skills. He improved rapidly. Unfortunately, he struggled with injuries each time success seemed within reach. Having competed internationally and achieved one of his main goals—winning the Maccabiah Games—Salvage decided not to fight the fates and returned to his computer career. Still in college, he formed the club PHAST (Philadelphia-Area Striders Team) and led the resurgence of race walking in Philadelphia.

Graduating college in 1992, he balanced his information systems career—consulting, teaching and writing several college textbooks—while serving as Mid Atlantic Race Walking Chairman and Director of Race Walks at the Penn Relays, a position he still holds. In 1996 he became U.S. Junior National Race Walk Coordinator, coaching many top Juniors while running training camps for promising young athletes at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. Meanwhile, Salvage spearheaded his sport’s presence on the Internet with www.racewalk.com serving as the USATF race walking committee’s official site for nearly a decade. Today this site remains a primary source of free information on race walking technique, training, club programs, and national competition.

In 1996 Salvage coauthored Walk Like an Athlete, the basis of the race walking chapter of the USATF coach’s manual. Soon after he produced a two-part video by the same name. While this package served as a springboard for his current book/video/DVD series, Salvage’s recent products represent a wider synthesis of cumulative knowledge delivered with his expert flair for photography, computer graphics, and expository writing.

Today Salvage teaches computer science at Drexel University while pursuing numerous consulting, writing, and creative projects. His additional interests include kayaking and trekking, and his international travel photos recently appeared in What Digital Camera magazine.