Starting Running

Is It Okay to Walk During a Run?

Published September 1, 2026 By SUBNONE

Yes, and most beginners should be doing it deliberately. Why walking breaks build fitness rather than undermining it, and how to structure them properly.

Two runners alternating running and walking along a canal towpath

The short answer: yes. Walking during a run is completely fine, it's what most beginners should be doing deliberately, and plenty of experienced runners still do it on long runs and in races. It isn't cheating and it isn't failing.

Where the guilt comes from

Somewhere along the way, running picked up an unwritten rule that stopping to walk means you didn't really run. It's a strange idea, and it puts people off the sport more effectively than almost anything else.

The actual goal of a run is to spend time moving at an effort you can sustain and recover from. Whether that includes walking is a detail of how you get there.

Why walking breaks work

Your heart and lungs adapt to running faster than your tendons, joints and connective tissue do. Walking breaks let you extend the total time you spend moving while keeping the impact load manageable — which is exactly the balance a new runner needs.

They also keep the effort sustainable. Running until you're gasping and then stopping teaches your body very little except that running is unpleasant. Running steadily with planned breaks builds actual endurance.

Planned breaks beat emergency breaks

There's a real difference between deciding in advance to run two minutes and walk one, and running until you physically can't and then collapsing into a walk.

The first is a training method. The second is a pacing problem. If you consistently find yourself in the second category, you're running too fast — not walking too much.

A good test: during the running blocks, you should be able to speak a full sentence out loud. If you can only manage a couple of words, slow down.

How to structure it

Pick a ratio you can complete comfortably and repeat it. For example: run 2 minutes, walk 2 minutes, repeat six times. Then over the following weeks, lengthen the running blocks and shorten the walking ones.

The complete beginner's guide has a full eight-week progression built on exactly this.

Experienced runners do it too

Walking breaks aren't a beginner-only tool. Runners use them on very long runs to manage fatigue, on steep hills where walking is barely slower than running and much less costly, and in marathons at aid stations where trying to drink while running mostly results in wearing the drink.

Plenty of people run their best long-distance times using a deliberate run-walk strategy throughout.

When to stop using them

Naturally, as they stop being necessary. Once you can run 20-30 minutes continuously and comfortably, you'll probably find you stop reaching for them on shorter runs — and you may well still want them on longer ones.

There's no milestone you need to hit and no point at which walking becomes forbidden. It's a tool, available whenever it's useful.

Walking at a run club or event

Worth saying plainly: nobody at a well-run club or event cares. Most clubs run in pace groups, many have explicit run-walk groups, and volunteers at organised events are generally more enthusiastic about the people at the back than the people at the front.

If you're weighing this up, whether run clubs suit beginners covers what actually happens.

Listening to your body

Walking because you've planned to, or because you need to catch your breath, is fine. Stopping because of sharp pain, dizziness, chest discomfort or anything that feels genuinely wrong is different — end the session and speak to a GP. This is general guidance, not medical advice.