Evan Dunfee Q&A - 2015 Hershey Canadian Indoor Championships

The 2015 Hershey Canadian Indoor Championships take place February 20 to 22 in Montreal, Que. Over the next few weeks we will profile some of the top athletes competing in the event. The Hershey Canadian Indoor Championships serve as a national championship for youth and junior age category athletes, the event also features competition from Canada’s national team athletes in Open events. For more information and to register visit www.indoors.athletics.local

 

Evan Dunfee of Richmond, B.C., will race in the men’s Open 5000m race walk on Saturday February 21. Evan is a 4-time national champion and Canadian record holder in the 20km Race Walk.

 

AC: You recently set a personal best in the 50km, can you talk a little about the race and conditions in Australia? 

 

ED: The race in December was a fun experience... for about 35km. I went out hard and was feeling great and on for a sub 3:50 (3 hours and 50 minutes). I hit a wall and that last 15km was treacherous. I managed to slog it out and still come away with a small personal best and a qualifier for the World Championships (Beijing – August 2015). More importantly I learned a lot from the race in terms of where I am at and what I need to work on in the next 2 years before Rio to get competitive with the top guys.

 

AC: A special 5000m race has been set up at the Hershey Canadian Indoor Championships for you and your training partners to chase Tim Berrett's indoor record of 18:47.56, how confident are you that the almost 22-year-old record can be broken?

 

ED: Having never raced indoors I honestly don't know what to expect. To walk 18:45 is 3:45 pace/ km and for us to achieve that it requires a cadence greater than 200 steps a minute. I don't know how different that will feel on a 200m track vs. a 400m track. Additionally the air quality is a lot different which will certainly take its toll when working at near maximal effort for that long. That said the three of us have all walked under 19min or quicker before outdoors (Inaki Gomez: 18:45; Myself: 18:53; Ben Thorne: 19:00) and we tend to bring the best out of each other when we race so I could definitely see one or all of us dipping under Tim's mark. 

 

AC: What was the feeling like at the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup when you set the Canadian record, finished 11th and the team placed 4th?

 

ED: The World Cup was awesome. I had just finished the last exam of my undergrad days earlier, so the whole week was quite joyous. The race itself turned out to be nearly perfect. The course was flat and fast. The weather was ideal with a slight rain falling. I started out pretty conservatively and tucked in 15-20m behind the big pack of 30. At 10km, I was in 32nd just having gone past a big group and I knew I was moving quicker than those in front of me. At this point I knew the record was going to fall, but didn't know who was going to get it as I was the 3rd Canadian. Along with Inaki and Ben, the group ahead of me had some of my biggest rivals so I focused on catching them, which I was able to do by 15km. The last 5km I struggled a little bit but was still able to pass a few who had fallen off the pace. The last km was especially fun as Inaki and I were side by side, luckily I was able to hold him off at the line and grab the record. To have all 3 of us so close was amazing! We really had no idea where we had come as a team, but we knew it would be close to a medal. When we found out we were 4th by just 1 point it was pretty upsetting, but only until we were able to rephrase that and think, "Holy crap! We came 4th!" It was a big step forward in Race Walk West's ultimate goal of World Domination. 

 

AC: What role does an indoor race like this play in your preparation for a year that features the Pan Am Games and World Championships? 

 

ED: This indoor race will be a fun test early in the season to see how things are progressing with the training. I'll be coming to Montreal with 3 weeks of training in San Diego behind me so it will be a fun culmination of that training block. As far as towards preparation for Pan Ams or Worlds, it's not really huge as 5km doesn't really translate much to 50km. But the fact that we are racing in one of the premiere time slots of the weekend, it will be great to put on a show for those in attendance. It is something I couldn't have fathomed when I started race walking 10 years ago. Being a marque event as opposed to an afterthought is really a huge honour. Ultimately I hope we can get even one kid in the crowd interested and asking questions about the walk and it will totally be worth it!

 

AC: Are there specific elements of your technique or fitness you are focusing on this winter and this year?

 

ED: Since the race (50km in December) I've been enjoying some much needed time off. My training for 2014 started in October 2013 and went through to December with very little time off. It’s been important for me to get a big long rest in and refresh both mentally and physically. Moving forward in 2015, I will be working on improving some technique issues around my knees which will allow me to race with more confidence and not have to worry about picking up warnings. From a fitness point of view, it’s all about getting stronger right now. So being in the gym and hitting some high mileage once I get back into training mid-January.  

 

AC: Have you ever spent time in Montreal?

 

ED: This will actually be my first time in Montreal. I'm really looking forward to it and plan to stay an extra day after the meet to get a chance to look around a bit. The last time I had to speak any French was in grade eight and I squeaked through with 49.6%... So that'll definitely be interesting. 

 

AC: What are your goals for 2015?

 

ED: Competitively my goals this year are to medal at Pan Ams and finish top 10 at Worlds. Developmentally, I'm going to be working on improving my strength and endurance. One of my key workouts is a 40-45km walk in the morning with a 10km tempo in the afternoon, so I'll be looking at getting through a few of those over the season.

 

-AC-

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