Run or Walk?

Run or walk? That’s the question of the day.

I am not an experienced or good distance runner. One of the things that really attracted me to Team in Training, other than its mission of curing blood cancers, is that you could actually walk a marathon. Before learning of TNT, it never occurred to me that one could walk a marathon.

My first two marathons, I walked. Now if that sounds wimpy, consider that we are not talking about a casual stroll here. I move my legs to take about 130 steps a minute, each one about a yard long. It comes out to about a mile every 13.5 to 14 minutes when you factor in porta-potty lines. My first marathon took about 6 hours and 40 minutes, my second about 6 hours and 14 minutes.

Earlier this year, I didn’t feel as in good shape, but did the Arizona Marathon in about 5 hours and 57 minutes, because I started running for two minutes every mile at about mile 12. I hadn’t trained with running, and our coaches tell us not to do anything new on race day, but I just felt like trying it.

Running a marathon is clearly harder. Runners who try walking for 10 miles or so with the walk team tell us that they think that walking is more difficult, how sore they are. But it is all in what you are used to. I can walk 10 miles, fast, with relative ease, but if I ran 10 miles – assuming I could even do it – I don’t think I could get out of bed the next day.

Whether I run or walk this season will depend on the makeup of the team, the distance I choose (half or full), how I am feeling, and whether I have any injuries. If we have a good group of fast walkers like we had last season, I will likely walk more and run less. But if there are not many walkers, and especially if they are all slower than I am, I may make the transition to run more and walk less.

This morning, I did a 5K on the treadmill, alternating between walking for five minutes at 4.4 miles per hour and running for three minutes at 5.8 mph. It took 38 minutes to do the 5K, essentially shaving about 4 minutes off the pace had I walked only. My legs definitely felt more tired at the end than they usually would for just walking five kilometers. So I will have some conditioning to do if I make the transition. Combining running and walking is called the Galloway method, I think. This may be a good year to try something new.