I have been speaking to RealFoodieClub about the benefits of racewalking and she sent me an interesting link about how racewalking can help running, and I can comment on how the opposite seems true, how running helps walking.
This is the link from RealFoodieClub, which opens up a lot of possibilities and maybe gives extra options to those hitting struggles with running
active.com/articles/racewal...
I normally do a lot of race walk training through the year, in preparation for a series of winter 10k races we take part in.
This year, with following and finally completing the Couch to 5k I have done hardly any walk training, just running, so I entered my 10k walking race this Sunday with no great hopes. In the event I managed a time - 68.55 - slightly quicker than my last race in January - with virtually no walk training. This really surprised me, but has showed that my Couch running must have given me better cardio capability, and maybe stronger legs. I found that racewalking gives you a strong 'bum' but after running Couch to 5k I feel that my thighs are much stronger and tighter. So maybe doing both running and walking gives you the best of both worlds. I think it also shows that if you need a break during a run, dropping down to a fast walk will not lose you much time, and in fact as the link says, many people are actually able to go quicker by mixing the two up.
I am not sure if this is of any interest to you real runners, but you do get a free photo of an ancient race walker.