How I ran/walked my way to a BQ marathon on Sunday

Did the Disney marathon last weekend and lots of people follow the walk/run. Watches were going off all the time, epople would set it to tell them when to walk and when to run.

Great finish!

No, I dont think it is Galloway exactly, and its not exactly Endurance Nation, nor Coach Larry.  It was my run/walk strategy and this is thread about how I did it. 

I haven't studied the Galloway literature for a while, but I believe he advocates RunX time, Walk Y time and as you get faster X increase and Y decreases. 

Endurance Nation is a 20-30"/mile walk during an Ironman Run.

so my run/walk strategy wasn't real?

Are you saying that in order for it to be a "real" strategy one should run to the watch beep regardless?  So you may find yourself walking to an aid station only to grab a cup and run? Or walking to the foot of a hill and running up it?

I do remember adjusting the planned breaks to the course in some of my reading.  Or maybe I invited the idea.  I shall alert Jeff.

I think your plan and Jeff's plan are a bit different in that his really is not just a set start walking, but also a set stop walking too.  It is very controlled starts and stops.  I "ran" the Disney half marathon, but when I decided to get PowerAid I walked the aid station (ran the water ones) cause I didn't want PowerAid on me.  My breaks were way shorter then anything in a Galloway plan and did not provide the recovery that his plan calls for.  I think that in reality my HR probably did not drop at all and my walk was yards in no more then double digits.   

How long were your walks?  I think that is a key factor, they have to be long enough for some kind of recovery, not just to get nutrition in.

Nice job on the marathons though, that's awesome

THere is wisdom here.  I can't quantify the recovery I got walking ~20" at each aid station, but I can tell you that I looked forward to each one and welcomed the opportunity.

The hills was a different story.  I had a noticable drop in HR walking the hills and hit the crest feeling ready to run.

Nothing wrong with interspersed walks in a marathon.

I will still wager that you could have run slightly faster by eliminating the walk breaks from the water stations and holding an overall slightly slower pace. There is a lot of evidence in almost all endurance sports showing that holding an overall steady pace for long races is the way to go for the PR. 

I do think there is value in easing off the gas and possibly walking on steep hills so you don't redline too quickly - I agree that a lot of folks (myself included) go too hard on the inclines of a marathon and unnecessarily push into lactate generation. I still would be surprised that at 7min/mile, that you'd have to actually walk hills under 8% incline, though. (That's slowing to at least a 12-13 mile on the walk, which is nearly a 2x drop in pace.)

But I definitely agree with you - folks are often 'afraid' to walk in the marathon, and your results show that if done in appropriate small amounts, you can still go really fast. (I've heard of guys running sub 2:40 that walked for at least 20-30 seconds at every water stop on the course.)

True, but keep in mind I ran a traditional race to a 2:59 on a considerably easier course 4 weeks earlier.

Congrats on 2 good marathon times.

At Rocket City where you ran the whole way, what were your splits like for each half?

Congrats!

Lots of folks advocate run/walk for all even fast folks and many pooh pooh the idea.

I'm glad it worked for you.

THIS!  I always have the same concern, if I stop running it will be 10X harder to start again than it would be if I just kept running.

The hill thing I agree with 100% though.  I was in a race going up a ridiculously steep hill and running up it slowly.  Guy next to me is walking and going the same speed, so I start walking too and make some comment to him about having the right idea.  Meanwhile we both pass a woman who is still running.

A better wording would have been not a traditional run/walk strategy.  Nothing wrong will calling out the difference.  Any way you get from the start to the finish is valid (short of assisted transportation of course).  And anyone that qualifies for Boston really doesn't have to listen to a single thing we all say. 

6@ 41:45

13.1 @ 1:29:56

16@ 1:50:10

20@ 2:15:34

26.2 @ 2:59:0X

Full race report with lots of pictures here