How a Run-Walk Strategy Might Help Your Marathon

This is a very interesting piece, mainly supporting by the comments on the bottom (at the time of me writing this, no-one had been called a Nazi yet in the comments).

The thing is- I can not help but feel it would take balls and a confidence which have been built beforehand over several events. I would be unsure about turning up to a marathon- which is, let’s face it, normally the biggest event in most people’s calendar- using this strategy without having tested it significantly before.

My other worry is my limit on my heart rate. If I can’t speed up on the run bits, then the overall effect will just be slow, with potentially 14-minute miles (equalling a marathon time over 6 hours). I would have to be running 8-minute miles (which I can’t yet) to offset the 2 minutes of walking. But by doing this, with walking being

I would have to be running 8-minute miles (which I can’t yet) to offset the 2 minutes of walking. But by doing this, with walking being 16-minute miles, I would end up sub 4 hours- which seems amazing. So in effect, I would do an 8-minute mile then walk for 2 minutes, and loop it until the end. Ludicrous thinking, as I can’t run one 8-minute mile yet.

So let us say 10-minute miles, then 2 minutes walking. This would mean for every 8 miles I run, I would have walked one- in 90 minutes. This would equate to sub 4 hours 30 minutes marathon- a PB.

What do you think? Worth a try? Or maybe you have experience of this running strategy? Let me know in the comments below!