Why Race Walk?

I was dining in a sports bar that was airing an event I am conspicuously avoiding on some of the televisions. It was "race walking". Who invented this "sport"? If you want to go somewhere quickly without a vehicle, I can see running, but what is the possible purpose of "race walking"? Did someone once say, "I need to get there in a hurry, but not too fast"? It is a sport (after a fashion), but one without any discernible reason to exist.