How fast can you go if you deliberately set out to speed walk the marathon? Has anyone ever tried it…I know sometimes your run comes to a walk after blowing up; but I would thik that if you start with a fast walk you might actually go faster than someone who run/walks the marathon b/c their walk can get pretty slow at times.
I am asking for someone who has compartment syndrome and may not be able to run the marathon.
In the winter, I walk from the train station to my office (was running last summer)- if I’m running late, I can do about 13 min/mile. The standard for a road march in the Army is 15 min/mile w/ about 30-35 # of gear. Not too taxing, even when we’d do the battalion 25-miler every quarter. Trying to push the walking pace feels different than just going for a stroll, though. You tend to point your toes skyward a bit more, and the tibialis anterior can get really tight- might aggravate the compartment syndrome. Good luck to her!
I pretty much walked most of my IMAZ (at least 22 out of the 26.2 miles) and did it in 5:32. That is about 3 minutes slower than Katie Holmes did her NY City marathon.
Ooops, rumor has it that she might have had a “ghost runner.”
Herbert
You mean a “gespenst läufer”?
NO!!!
Fred.
When I did IM CdA in 06 there was someone who finished the race with a broken foot in a walking cast. I’d say walking the whole marathon is totally doable in 6 hrs max - E
5:32; thats pretty good for walking most of it…it looks like in her age group most women are doing over 4 hours for the marathon anyhow…i wonder if speed walking racers where different shoes?
Well “speed walking racers” have to abide by a specific set of rules as opposed to the average person who is just trying to walk quickly.
Are you actually trying to “speed walk” it or just walk it as quickly as possible?
At IM LP several years ago I had PF and walked the whole run in 5:45… not pretty but still finished.
I saw a guy speedwalking the entire run at IMAZ last year, if I remember correct, I watched him cross the line about 14:45 into the race.
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Isn’t that what Frank Frarr does? He alway comes in before the finish and he is 70+
I was able to “walk fast” at a 14min mile pace during my last IM, in between my slow jogs 
.
Nein! Un geistlaufer?! Ich werde entsetzt, wirklich entsetzt!
I have not tried what you are suggesting. I think it would be tough to do in much under 6 hours. That’s a 4.4 mph pace. On a treadmill it’s not so hard to hold that pace because the treadmill forces the issue. But, on the road it would take a lot of mental toughness and focus to maintain that pace for 6 hrs – it’s so easy to mentally drift and slow down when you’re walking for a long time.
Big Z,
Race walkers are dropping 4 min k’s. I wish I could run that fast!
At the 2005 IM Western australia, I had a torn meniscus in my left knee that made it impossible for me to run more than 100 yards without my quad involuntarily giving out. Since my son had also signed up to do his first and we flew all the way over there (from Delaware)I decided to walk the marathon. I did a 6:32 which included about a 5 minute stop during the walk to help my son. I wasn’t “hammering” the walk and I wasn’t concerned at all about my time since I knew it would be my slowest IM no matter what. That said, I was purposefully moving it. I think this is right around 15 minute miles. I think that’s a reasonable number to plan on unless your friend is focused on “racing” the walk.
As an aside, I had unbelievable blisters on the balls of my feet after that walk and I had to endure about 1000 “come on mate, you can do it, you can run” comments…but like all IMs, I’m proud I did it and consider it very much an IM even though it was 2 and a half hours slower than normal…
If you’re talking anterior compartment syndrome I can’t see this being a solution. Truly fast walking is done by what we would call overstriding in running. Anterior compartment syndrome in some cases is totally caused by overstriding, or in other cases aggravated by overstriding when running. So speed walking probably won’t work. I’ve got personal experience with this, couldn’t run morethan 8 minutes until I learned about overstriding -until then I thought overstriding was how you were supposed to run!
If we are talking about posterior compartment syndrome, then never mind.
Thanks for the responses. She has posterior compartment syndrome, and has had one minor surgery done to try and help things out. This was 5 years ago and didn’t help much…Also the 4 min/Km…wow, they could out"walk" for a 5k back in my first few years of high school cross country!
I’ve done one IM, only because people thought I wasn’t a triathlete until I could say I had finished one (I’m the kind of guy who does the 5 k running race if I have a choice of 5 or 10, etc.). My calves completely locked up after about 5 miles. I speed walked the rest of the way. Even including the time to get a massage to try to get my wooden calves into something flexible again (it didn’t work), I did the whole thing in 5:25. On the return leg, there was a guy running about 100 yards ahead of me. Until we got back to Penticton, he was always about 100 yards in front. When he hit the downhill in town, he motored away but the gap had been the same for at least 5 miles before that.
My most embarrassing athletic event ever. I was passed on the walk by people I never saw in any other triathlon after the start or after I’d pass them early on the bike.
Hello BIGZACH and All,
I have a torn miniscus and running training on successive days caused my knee to swell and hurt.
I investigatged ‘race walking’ AKA ‘heel toe’ as a way to still do IM races.
A few years ago at the Olympic trials in Mexico I was impressed at how smooth the qualifiers moved - most did not have the big hip swing you see on some race walkers.
Also viewed from the front (as the pack approached) their heads hardly bobbed up and down at all - very smooth.
I joined a ‘race walk’ group and began to learn the technique. Softer shoes are used so you can lengthen the stride and as one instructor told me - you can tell when you are going to pass your competition because as they tire they drop their arms to their sides. So while it looks sort of dorky to walk with your arms up like when you run - it really does make it easier to go a bit quicker.
Comparing heart rates race walking and jogging at same pace per mile … race walking percieved effort and heart rate is noticeably higher and is less efficient than jogging or running.
It does work for low impact though - no problems with my knee.
**I can usually run on or two days without a problem but normal training with several days in a row on the blacktop or trail won’t work unless I wear Z-Coil shoes. **
**Lately I have another better work around though - I got a Nordic Track S 3000 treadmill - rated softest landing in the current crop of treadmills and I can run on that every day. So I train on the treadmill, elliptical trainer, and water run, and plan to just tough it out and run as much of the IM as possible. ******
50K (31.069 miles) race walk World Record 3:36:03 or about 7 min/mile pace.
20K (12.43 miles) race walk World Record 1:18:59 or about 6:21 min/mile pace.
Marathon (26.22 miles) Running World record 2:04:26 or about 4:45 min/mile pace.
Cheers,
Neal
At IMC this year I had to probably walk about 18 miles of the marathon because of a lingering foot injury. My ‘run’ time was 5:55. At about the 20 mile mark a speed walker passed me. Have no idea how far back he was on the bike, but he was just motoring along on the walk. Even when I ran I wasn’t making up any ground on him.