Half-Marathons: Running Versus Walking

We're at T minus 17 days until the Mini-Marathon, and I'm just now starting to realize how different walking that distance will be, as compared to running it like I have in the past. Gut instinct tells you that running would be much harder than walking it, and that mostly is true. However, if you're a runner (like me) then changing your body's way of covering that distance, even if you're dropping down to a much slower pace, works muscles and joints much differently. I decided last Friday that I was just going to walk for a whole hour on a treadmill at a speed of 4.0mph. Aside from the boredom factor (thank God for HGTV!), it was pretty easy in terms of the cardio required. I was barely working up much of a sweat and able to breathe through my nose the whole time. How my joints felt was a totally different story. Towards the end of the hour, I started to notice the bottoms of my feet were burning--kind of like a tingling feeling if you've been on an elliptical for too long. My shins were getting a little tight but not too painful, and I think my hips noticed the movement more than they do during running. All I was thinking was that it would be so much easier and more natural for me if I just started running. For the whole weekend afterwards, my ankles, shins, and feet felt the effects.

If you think about it, your feet have contact with the ground much longer when you walk, as compared to when you run. There is obvioulsy much more force and impact when you run, being that there are brief time periods where neither one of your feet is touching the ground. Based on the joint impact of running, walking would still be a safer option for the general population. During running, most people don't have much of a heel strike--I had my running gait analyzed in college, so I know this is true for me too. You see some people at an extreme who almost have zero heel strike and look like they're running on tiptoes. With walking, however, your heel always hits the ground first, and then your foot rolls from the back to front, ending with the push off the toe--so all in all, more time spent on the ground. (You can almost pick out these form differences in the two pictures above.) So if you're more accustomed to running, where your foot has a lighter tread on the ground and is only touching for a brief second, then walking a long distance can create burning sensations (or even blisters!) on the feet and a feeling of more pressure where the shin connects down to the ankle.

I'm definitely glad I decided to do a few practice walks before the day of the Mini. From people who have both walked and run a half-marathon before, they say you are equally sore the next day. If nothing else, this has given me way more respect for the people I see "just" walking every day, and I'll be less likely to discount it as a real workout!