Any marathon walkers out there?

Qatsi

I do a lot of walking (7-8 miles a day, on average) as my primary exercise. I've never been a runner, and my knees have told me repeatedly they don't like it when I've tried it, so I'm okay with "just" walking for now.

A couple of months ago I decided it would fun to walk a half marathon, and picked one in February as a goal, and have started doing progressively longer and faster walks every other weekend.

Last week I did 11 miles with no problem, and next weekend I plan to do 12 miles - and maybe push it to the full 13.1 if I'm feeling up to it.

Anyway, I've decided I don't want to wait seven months to do an "official" half marathon, so I'm looking to do that in late summer or early fall.

But that got me thinking about the February event. That's still 30 weeks away - wouldn't it be crazy to see if I could attempt to walk the FULL marathon by then?

Turns out - maybe not so crazy after all. I found a site called marathonwalking.com which has a training schedule that takes you from a 6-mile walk to 26.2 in 20 weeks. The site also looks like it's got a lot of good resources for people interested in this.

Bottom line - I decided to take a leap of faith and sign up for the February full marathon. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, in terms of increasing both endurance and walking speed. But what's the point of taking on a challenge if you already know you can hit the goal?

In any case - is there anyone else out there who has walked either a full or a half marathon, or is planning to and is looking for support and motivation?

Impy84

Wouldn't consider myself a marathon walker yet. But like you i pref walking to running and feel no shame about it.
i've signed up to walk a 5 k this october. I walk about 5-10 miles a day 5 outdoor and another 5 in the gym. Im working my way up slowly and hopefully one day I can do as you are doing.