May-6-08
Bram Stoker: speed walker!
Did you know that Bram Stoker was interested in speed-walking? It’s true!
The author of Dracula was a race walker of some repute. In fact, he clocked 40min 5sec to cross the line first in the five-mile walk at the Civil Service Athletics Championships in London (1868).
For those with a mathematical brain, that’s 8min 1sec a mile, or 3hr 30min marathon pace.
Pretty good, eh?
Spookily, Britain has a new rising star of race walking, Johanna Jackson, who trains just above Whitby (where Stoker found some of his inspiration for his gothic novel).
The Independent has more to say on the matter… Bram Stoker: speed walker!