Susan Armenta became a race walker to escape injuries caused by running high school cross country. She was fortunate to go to one of the few colleges that provided both a race walking scholarship and excellent coaching: the University of Wisconsin, Parkside. She took to race walking quickly and in 1992 qualified for the World Junior Championships, where she placed 20 th. As a freshman she also competed in the Olympic Trials race walk, finishing an impressive tenth place.

After starting her second year at Parkside, Armenta missed the warmth and sun of California and decided to head home and train on her own. While she found the California climate more enjoyable, it was not as conducive to successful race walking. Instead, Armenta excelled running cross country at her new school, California State Polytechnic, Pomona, where she was the top runner on her team.

In 1995, Armenta used her fitness level from running as a springboard to train more seriously for the race walk.  Still coached by mail by Mike DeWitt, Armenta qualified for the World University Games and finished 17th. Her next goal was the 1996 Olympic Trials.  Without training very seriously, Armenta managed to finish in 9th place. However, when the international race distance switched from 10K to 20K, Armenta decided to take training more seriously.  She moved to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA. Armenta enjoyed the distance more than the shorter events and at the 1998 Pan Am Cup Trials finished 3 rd, her highest national finish to date.

Armenta repeated her third-place finish at Nationals in 1999 to qualify for the World Championships. There she thought she had a great race, despite very hot conditions.  She finished as the top American, 31st overall.

After a disappointing finish at the 2000 Olympic Trials, Armenta planned to retire from race walking. But in 2001, USATF recognized the 50km race walk championship for women, motivating Armenta to attempt the new distance. Her efforts were successful, as she established the American record of 4:49:57, bettering her performance the following year with a time of 4:39:39. 

Armenta decided to continue training for the 20K race at the 2004 Olympics, while attending school full-time. She recently graduated from Cal State, San Bernardino’s Kinesiology program (December 2003) and will attend graduate school in Exercise Physiology there.

20K World Championships
1999 - 31st - 1:40:20 – Seville, Spain

20K World Cup
2004 - 77th - 1;4538 - Namburg, Germany 
2002 - 54th - 1:42:14 - Torino, Italy

20K Pan Am Cup
2003 - 11th - 1:49:03 - Chula Vista, USA
2000 - 10th - 1:39:55 - Poza Rica, Mexico
1998 - 6th - 1:44:58 - Miami, USA