Have you ever seen those predawn exercise nuts, pumping theirarms and swinging their hips as if they’re in the biggest hurry toget somewhere — but heaven forbid they break out in a run, or evena trot?

Welcome to the world of racewalking, a high-intensity gluteworkout where athletes walk faster than most people run.

Not too many people know about the sport, but Northwestern crosscountry runner Alessandra Vavas knew enough to racewalk in the PennRelays at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday. Vavas foughtthrough a career-threatening stress fracture and personal issues towalk on to NU’s cross country team.

Vavas proved she had rebounded from those hard times, finishingfourth against college and professional walkers in the Women’sOlympic Development 5K Racewalk in Philadelphia with a time of 25minutes and 58 seconds.

“I think I’m going to be one of those old women racewalking whenthey’re 80,” said Vavas, a former Daily staffer.

Because walkers tend to peak at an older age than otherathletes, the 20-year-old found herself up against professionalwalkers in their 30s.

At first, walking was just a way for Vavas to get out of her”least-favorite workout” — 400 meter repeats. She picked it up herfreshman year of high school to avoid the drill.

By her junior year in high school, Vavas had become one of thenation’s top-ranked racewalkers, but the pressure to be the bestpushed Vavas over the edge.

“I just kind off went off the deep end,” Vavas said. “I’d cutclass to practice, and it kind of got to the point where no one wasputting pressure on me to racewalk but myself.”

Her obsession with racewalking and need to be the best led to abumpy senior year filled with stress, anxiety and frequent panicattacks.

Vavas started to see even first-place wins as losses when shedidn’t reach her goals.

“It wasn’t ‘I achieved’ or ‘I did well,’ Vavas said. “It wasalways ‘I lost.'”

By the end of her senior year, Vavas said, she was miserable.Something had to give, and that something turned out to be herfoot.

“I got a bad stress fracture,” Vavas said. “But looking back, itwas probably the best thing that happened to me.”

She called her injury a “twist of fate” because it gave her achance to step back and realize “there was so much (she) took forgranted.”

After the stress fracture kept her away from track, her motherand her own academic goals led Vavas to NU. But even though she wasa nationally ranked racewalker in high school, college track was acompletely different event.

“When I came to Northwestern, I couldn’t run at all,” Vavassaid. “Basically, I just sucked for three years.”

Vavas said she would go “slower than an eighth-grader would” atthe beginning, and wasn’t nearly as in shape as she used to be. Buteven though she wasn’t speeding her way to personal recordsanymore, she wasn’t going to let her old obsessions catch up withher.

“This has been a season where I basically squelched all the badhigh school memories — all the bad times when I was upset and allthe times in college when I was so depressed,” Vavas said. “I wasterrible, and I couldn’t make myself go fast anymore.

“This season is to basically erase all of that, and thank myteammates.”

She said her teammates’ support helped her to stay positive andkeep walking.

For Vavas, one small stress fracture turned an unhealthydetermination to be the best into a better understanding of whyit’s important to keep things in perspective.

“I wouldn’t say life threw me a curve ball so much as it knockedme flat on my ass,” Vavas said.

After this weekend, Vavas said, she is happy with herfourth-place finish in the Penn Relays and glad just to haveimproved her personal record instead of obsessing about firstplace.

“Right now I’m really proud of myself,” Vavas said. “That is thefirst time I’ve said that in a long time.”