'Upgrading' from walking Half Marathon to Full Marathon next year

[TrainRager]

Hi everyone, this Saturday night, with a few friends, I completed the 'Shine' Night Walk Half Marathon in London. Took us 5hrs 42minutes but I'm carrying a little more weight than I want and I'd twisted my ankle a fortnight ago. We also did very little training in the run-up to it. This is my third year in a row, I did around the same time last year and the year prior to that (when I weighed 4 stone less and had trained a bit better) we achieved 5hrs 16minutes. I really now want to try and do the Full Marathon for the same event next year, and my finger has been hovering over the 'book now' button all day. My worry, though, is am I up to it? I know some proper training is required and am willing to do it. I am also on the path to losing that weight I have gained over the last two years. Has anyone done similar, transitioning from a 13 mile walk to the 26 miler? If so, I would really appreciate some honest accounts, feedback and advice. Thank you.

I'm sorry, I run and haven't done any long distance walks but I can't see why you wouldn't be able to do it. Training is key. My friend did a 26 mile walk last year and she built up gradually from short to long distances. You have already achieved a lot so why not? If you can carry on with the weight loss that will help and of course plenty of walking will help with that too. Make sure you have good shoes and think about nutrition and what you will eat when walking and figure out when you need to start your training to allow you to build up gradually. Good luck!

Yes! Go for it!

I did the full Moonwalk twice, once in 2006 and once in 2014. There was a good training plan on their website to gradually build you up to the full distance over a few months. Lots of time on your feet plus not overdoing it too quickly to avoid injury and you'll do it!

I did the walk the walk moonwalk full marathon in may this year, I followed their training plan over about 12 weeks.
It's time consuming as you get into the longer walks but definitely worth it.
We are in our 50s but did it fairly easily to be honest in about 8 hours, so a nice steady pace.
We saw quite a few people flaking out on the route or stopping because of blisters which I think we avoided as we trained consistently .
Good luck!