Walk – don't run.

Whitehorse's Tanya Astika has adopted this motto some time ago.

Astika finished third (second for women) out of the 275 walkers entered in the half marathon at the Saskatchewan Credit Union Queen City Marathon in Regina over the weekend.

"I was very pleased, but I had no idea going into it who was going to be there or what kind of competition it was,” she said.

Astika had to make the tough decision to travel to Saskatchewan for the event. The Queen City Marathon fell on the same weekend as the Klondike Trail of '98 International Road Relay, in which she captained the Chocolate Claim Walkers in the past, and the 2010 Alberta Provincial Race Walk Championships.

"After doing Regina with 3,800, and all that energy, compared to being out in the road relay with maybe a rogue bear, is a bit more energizing,” she said.

Astika decided to travel to Regina because her daughter, Emma Ullyett, attends university there and also ran in the half marathon over the weekend.

"My daughter said to me, ‘Do you think you're going to win, Mom?' and I said, ‘I don't think so',” Astika said. "I was sure there were going to be lots of people that would be a whole lot faster than that.”

But she's no race walking rookie.

Astika has competed in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley, where she will head to Thanksgiving weekend to compete, and at the World Masters in Sydney, Australia, in the past, as well as walking in the Mayo Midnight Marathon each summer.

The Valley Harvest Marathon in Nova Scotia doesn't even offer a walking category, she noted.

"I know for my own time, it's official, it's timed, but fast walkers will do that. We found out in Australia that fast walkers all around the world do that, because there's just not enough judged events for walkers,” Astika said.

Judged events keep a watchful eye on the race walkers technique, she explained.

The two main rules are that the knee has to be straight all the way through until the walker plants that foot, and one foot has to be on the ground at all times.