Deirdre Collier Webb - Tappan Zee 1987
Racewalking is a discipline unlike any other in track & field. It is the only track event where you can be disqualified for an improper stride. It calls to mind the American Indian expression, “Grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins.” Unless you’ve tried it, you could not know how hard it is to walk as fast as you can while A) keeping one foot in contact with the ground at all times and B) keeping your knee straight upon contact with the ground.
Like other racewalkers, Deirdre Webb endured some heckling from misguided folks, primarily while she was doing her road workouts. But she was undeterred: “I just ignored it,” says Deirdre, whose maiden name is Collier. “I knew what I did was strange to people. When people made comments to me directly, I tried to explain [that] what I did was the same, maybe harder than running.”
Deirdre received excellent mentoring right from the start. Bill Stage, Bob Hudson and Bruce Woolley helped shape her development as school coaches in the Tappan Zee system. Dave McGovern, a former Clarkstown North star and still a national-caliber walker, and racewalking guru Howard Jacobson of the Eastside Track Club built upon that foundation with advanced training advice and guidance.
When Deirdre was an eighth grader competing for the high school team, Coach Stage asked for volunteers for the racewalk relay. Deirdre and a teammate stepped forward to give it a try, but the teammate got cold feet, and TZ bypassed the event. The following year, however, Deirdre again volunteered, started winning races and soon became the undisputed queen of racewalking in Rockland. In fact, at one point she was faster than all male racewalkers in the county, back when the boys’ walk was a regularly contested event in the mid-80s.
As a junior, Deirdre won the New York State 1,500-meter walk title in 7:11; on this and seven other occasions she established a Rockland County record in either the 1,500 or mile walk. Although later that season she won the mile walk at the Pathmark National Scholastic Classic in a County-record 7:41.97 (which she later eclipsed with a 7:39.34), she considers her state-meet victory the most memorable. A few days before the meet she sustained a knee injury on a fall during a road workout and feared internal damage to the knee. Nonetheless she competed and, adhering to her usual strategy, won convincingly.
“In races I always came from behind because there was always the jostling in the first few laps and I tried to avoid it,” she says. “At the state meet, I let a few laps go by until the competitors spread out, then I took off” and heel-and-toed to victory.
In addition to those titles, Deirdre finished third in the Pathmark Nationals as a senior, won three County crowns overall, four Section 9 or Section 1 championships and five State Qualifier titles. Outside of the high school season, she won one Empire State Games gold medal and two bronze medals, and was silver medalist in the Senior Metropolitan Athletics Congress indoor mile walk as a senior.
Deirdre raised her walking to a new realm at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a school renowned for its racewalking program. As a freshman she won the U.S. Junior National 5K walk title at Florida State University in Tallahassee and qualified to compete in the World Junior Championships in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In 1988 she set U.S. junior national records in the 10K (6.2-mile) road racewalk, 51:10, and the 20K (12.4-mile) walk, 1:50:01. Deirdre’s then-school record time of 50:47 in the 10K track racewalk qualified her for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, where she finished a strong eighth.
In addition, she finished fifth in the 3K racewalk at the 1989 USA Mobil Indoor championships at Madison Square Garden, and qualified for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials, but an injury to her iliotibial (IT) band forced her to stop walking competitively.
After graduating from Wisconsin-Parkside in the fall of 1992 with a B.A. in history and a teacher certification, Deirdre worked as a substitute teacher and taught summer school before securing a position in purchasing at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago in 1994. Three years later she became purchasing manager at Hewitt Associates, a managing consulting company in Lincolnshire, Ill., and remained there until 2000, when her second child was born. She’s now a stay-at-home mom living in Hainesville, Ill., north of Chicago. She and her husband Tim have three children: Timmy, 8; Sean, 4; and Eileen, 3.
Deirdre, who is 35, recently got back into racewalking after the birth of her third child. Although her old IT band injury prevents her from competing as seriously as in the past, she is still a committed athlete, training 30 to 40 miles a week. She even completed the Chicago Marathon, racewalking a creditable 5 hours 13 minutes 22 seconds.
“Racewalking is a part of me,” says Deirdre, who is known as Dee. “It was a very important part of my life during high school. It’s a really great honor to know that the people who played an active role in my racewalking career chose to recognize me almost 20 years later. It feels good to know that my hard work was not forgotten.”
Like other racewalkers, Deirdre Webb endured some heckling from misguided folks, primarily while she was doing her road workouts. But she was undeterred: “I just ignored it,” says Deirdre, whose maiden name is Collier. “I knew what I did was strange to people. When people made comments to me directly, I tried to explain [that] what I did was the same, maybe harder than running.”
Deirdre received excellent mentoring right from the start. Bill Stage, Bob Hudson and Bruce Woolley helped shape her development as school coaches in the Tappan Zee system. Dave McGovern, a former Clarkstown North star and still a national-caliber walker, and racewalking guru Howard Jacobson of the Eastside Track Club built upon that foundation with advanced training advice and guidance.
When Deirdre was an eighth grader competing for the high school team, Coach Stage asked for volunteers for the racewalk relay. Deirdre and a teammate stepped forward to give it a try, but the teammate got cold feet, and TZ bypassed the event. The following year, however, Deirdre again volunteered, started winning races and soon became the undisputed queen of racewalking in Rockland. In fact, at one point she was faster than all male racewalkers in the county, back when the boys’ walk was a regularly contested event in the mid-80s.
As a junior, Deirdre won the New York State 1,500-meter walk title in 7:11; on this and seven other occasions she established a Rockland County record in either the 1,500 or mile walk. Although later that season she won the mile walk at the Pathmark National Scholastic Classic in a County-record 7:41.97 (which she later eclipsed with a 7:39.34), she considers her state-meet victory the most memorable. A few days before the meet she sustained a knee injury on a fall during a road workout and feared internal damage to the knee. Nonetheless she competed and, adhering to her usual strategy, won convincingly.
“In races I always came from behind because there was always the jostling in the first few laps and I tried to avoid it,” she says. “At the state meet, I let a few laps go by until the competitors spread out, then I took off” and heel-and-toed to victory.
In addition to those titles, Deirdre finished third in the Pathmark Nationals as a senior, won three County crowns overall, four Section 9 or Section 1 championships and five State Qualifier titles. Outside of the high school season, she won one Empire State Games gold medal and two bronze medals, and was silver medalist in the Senior Metropolitan Athletics Congress indoor mile walk as a senior.
Deirdre raised her walking to a new realm at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, a school renowned for its racewalking program. As a freshman she won the U.S. Junior National 5K walk title at Florida State University in Tallahassee and qualified to compete in the World Junior Championships in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. In 1988 she set U.S. junior national records in the 10K (6.2-mile) road racewalk, 51:10, and the 20K (12.4-mile) walk, 1:50:01. Deirdre’s then-school record time of 50:47 in the 10K track racewalk qualified her for the 1988 U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, where she finished a strong eighth.
In addition, she finished fifth in the 3K racewalk at the 1989 USA Mobil Indoor championships at Madison Square Garden, and qualified for the 1992 U.S. Olympic Trials, but an injury to her iliotibial (IT) band forced her to stop walking competitively.
After graduating from Wisconsin-Parkside in the fall of 1992 with a B.A. in history and a teacher certification, Deirdre worked as a substitute teacher and taught summer school before securing a position in purchasing at Rush Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago in 1994. Three years later she became purchasing manager at Hewitt Associates, a managing consulting company in Lincolnshire, Ill., and remained there until 2000, when her second child was born. She’s now a stay-at-home mom living in Hainesville, Ill., north of Chicago. She and her husband Tim have three children: Timmy, 8; Sean, 4; and Eileen, 3.
Deirdre, who is 35, recently got back into racewalking after the birth of her third child. Although her old IT band injury prevents her from competing as seriously as in the past, she is still a committed athlete, training 30 to 40 miles a week. She even completed the Chicago Marathon, racewalking a creditable 5 hours 13 minutes 22 seconds.
“Racewalking is a part of me,” says Deirdre, who is known as Dee. “It was a very important part of my life during high school. It’s a really great honor to know that the people who played an active role in my racewalking career chose to recognize me almost 20 years later. It feels good to know that my hard work was not forgotten.”