Luke Racewalker: The Undertold Story

In a tiny, isolated Texas town just west of the Pecos, where the wandering buffalo still roam under great, cloudless skies, one young man’s dream is as big as the state he calls home.

His name is Luke Racewalker. His dream: to walk really, really fast.

Luke and his manager/trainer, Mr. Opie Shinobi (not their real names), recently released a major VHS documentary spanning Luke’s power-walking beginnings at the local mall all the way up to his preparations for the 2012 Olympic Games, while at the same time paying homage to a sport that gets walkers everywhere fired up.

Last week, Iron E-News’ top reporter traveled to the dusty little town to get the story behind the story.

“Well, it was first called Luke Racewalker: The Untold Story,” his manager recalled. “But after we started telling it, Luke felt bad and said we should change the title. So we brainstormed. And we came up with a few ideas that were, well sir, they were good as gold, or even better, like pyrite. One person came up with “Luke Racewalker: The Luke Racewalker Story” (which I thought was just powerful). Another person suggested we call it “Racewalker: To the Driveway and Back” (which still makes Mama cry). And then I came up with “Walker Texas Racer” but our lawyers told us that Mr. Norris would probably come and kick our butts through our faces if we did that. And I don’t know if you’ve ever looked at someone’s face and seen a butt there instead but, yeah, we didn’t want that. So we nixed it.”

All throughout our interviews Luke was a stone wall of concentration and focus. When asked a question—from his relationships to his practice regimen—he would simply say, “I let the walking do the talking.”

And when we asked what started this whole journey; what turned a small-town yokel into an American walking legend, he sat for a minute, took a sip of his sweet tea, and replied:

“I walk good. I walk real good.”