Effort/ Pacing for Run/Walk runs (Read 1012 times)

I ran/walked my first HM on Sunday. My friend and I decided to stick with the 1 minute run / 1 minute walk ratio. Wow, was it fun! It was very interesting - the group of women we started out with, who were going non-stop (except for when they got tired towards the end!), was pretty much the group we ended with. We leapfrogged them the entire way. But at mile 12 or so, I think we felt a lot better than they did! During our run intervals, we were often going less than 8mpm, which is almost 4 mpm than we would been going non-stop. What a rush! We also were running up hills at the end that others around us were walking. A couple of statistics: We finished the first 10K in 1:07:41, FASTER than I finished my 10K at the beginning of August (1:09:02)! Our time was 2:31:36, for an overall pace of 11:35. My last long run of 11.5 miles before I got injured was 11:21 pace! (I don't really have a "long run" pace or "race" pace at distances beyond 8 miles, so it's fair to compare them). Most importantly, we felt great at the end, and just as good the day after. Two days after the race (this morning), we ran 4 miles non-stop faster than we usually do. So our experiment was a success, and I highly recommend the method for anyone recovering from an injury or who just wants to finish a long race feeling stronger than they would otherwise.