Cody Risch’s athletic career started with grade school basketball, baseball, and soccer. Then once he reached high school, those sports were traded for cross country and track and field. When Risch went to college on a running scholarship, but then as a sophomore he lost a bet with his coach, and had to racewalk. His very first day walking he did a 1 mile time trial and amazingly blasted out a 7:51. That was faster than any other walker to go through Cornerstone on their first attempt. Eight days he qualified for his first NAIA National Championships.

A year later, Risch tried racewalking again and quickly improved to become the top ranked walker in the NAIA, however he was beaten out by a freshman at the National Championships. The sting left Risch with a passion to improve and move up in the rankings.

Risch stepped on the big stage at the Race Walking World Cup Trials in Eugene OR, in 2012. The race went miserably. It was the farthest he had ever walked at the time. The race didn’t go well. He crossed the and collapsed into his coach’s arms and swore he would never race that far ever again. Recovery was slow. It took him a full week to be able to do any kind of real training.

Risch’s 20km outlook improved by the time he raced in his first US Outdoor Championships in Des Moines IA, 2013. The race was delayed for about four hours because of rain and storms, but once it started it was of his best races. The first 10k was ticked by without much fanfare, but the second 10k was so strong that he PRed by just over 7 minutes! This was a huge breakthrough and helped him realize that he was able to race 20k and do it well.

Risch had an eye on the prize of being crowned NAIA National Champion. However, he failed on his first three attempts including a 2nd place finish as well as crossing the line in 1st only to be disqualified afterwards. Finally, on his last we won setting the national record in a come-from-behind win.

Training for Risch is about routine, the same routine day in and out. Almost every day starts by waking up at 6 AM to a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. “Nothing happens without coffee,” states Risch. He then gets in his daily mileage or workout before heading off to work. Most days he works as a substitute teacher and has to train before and after the school day. Once school is over, he heads to the gym to strength train and put in a few more miles. Sometimes he adds some recovery time normatec boots or floats a few miles on an alter G treadmill. He then heads home for dinner, and some downtime playing games with friends before it starts all over.

Risch doesn’t have an actual favorite workout, but he does have some staple ones that gets excited for. The first is called "two-by-double-broken-thousand" which means 800, 30 seconds rest, 200, 5 minutes rest, 600 30 seconds rest, 400, 5 minutes rest, then repeat all that. Its designed so that you can add the first 2 reps (800 + 200 = 1,000) and the next two (600 + 400 = 1,000) and get 1,000 meter times. The workout is 4k total, so you can take the average of each of those 1ks and see a 3k time. Some other classics are 10x1k, and 20-25x400.

While many would like the Olympics as a goal, he is currently focusing on something more immediate. Risch has a few distances in which his PR is long in the tooth. Both his 5k and 10k PRs were set in college, so he’d like to pop out PR in both distances. He would also like to break 1:27:00 in the 20k, as well as finish higher than 3rd in a domestic championship. Outside of his own athletic goals, he would like to start a track camp for kids ages 8-12 to get them excited, and become more involved in my association to help promote USATF MI in more schools.

20K US Ranking by Track and Field News

2018 – 3rd
2017 – 10th
2016 – 5th
2015 – 5th
2014 – 5th
2013 – 4th

50K US Ranking by Track and Field News

Not Ranked 

Major U.S. Championships (Indoors)

N/A

Major U.S. Championships (Outdoors)

2018 - 5km
2017 - 5km
2015 - 5km

2018 - World Team Racewalk Championships (Taicang, China)
2018 - NACAC Area Championships (Toronto, Canada)
2016 - World Team Racewalk Championships (Rome, Italy)
2015 - Pan Am Racewalk Cup (Arica, Chile)

"Do not get ahead of yourself. I have seen and trained many walkers that get easily discouraged when they aren't improving or get disqualifed. They see me doing my training, and my race results and don't realize the journey it took me to get here. I have my own successes, but they have all come with disappointments. I started the NAIA National Championship Meet as the favorite to win 5 times before I won a National title, and I went 5 years without a PR in any distance. Then, I started seeing improvement and things started getting better. So take each thing one step at a time and consistent training will eventually pay off."