Hi!
I've been preparing for a marathon for the last few months and I've been really enjoying it. My current 15 mile time is about 2:22-30 (depending on my mood!) so was looking forward to going onto running 18 miles in the next week. Then 3 days ago I found out I'm expecting a baby - a very big surprise baby 
(we've been trying for about 18 months, with many medical issues), but now my happy situation complicates matters!
I really do want to do the marathon - I've trained hard and it would be a shame to miss out. However, I'll be nearly 12 weeks so I think running it will be too much for me as it will be my first 26.2 (my doctor says so long as I take it steady, there's no reason to miss it). I have 6 weeks to go and to get me through I think a run/walk option might work well. I have to be back in 7 hours (marathon rules) and I worked out if I took my running back a notch to from 10 to 11 minute miles and walked at 16 minute miles, I'd be anywhere between about 5:50 and 6:05.
But what ratio should I do this in? I've read about running for 2m30s then walking a minute throughout, but also run a mile, walk a mile, etc... but in practice, I don't know what this would be like. I have a couple of half marathons, plus obviously long training runs, coming up in which I'll practise but I wondered if anyone had ever done a marathon with a walk/run schedule and had any advice for me. I currently run with a group so to preserve the baby-secret at least for the next few weeks, I'll have to run alone or with the husband, otherwise they'll wonder why I've tailed off.
Thanks very much for reading - anyadvice gratefully received!
