Why does everybody assume they’re the slowest runner around? I recall putting together a group run at a conference once. Everybody loved the idea of taking a leisurely jog around the city, but nobody wanted to be the first one to say what pace they actually ran. Everybody said “I’m slow, you guys can go ahead.” Once we were honest about our paces, we ended up splitting into a few nicely matched groups. Your pace is your pace, own it.

Exercise strengthens the body parts it uses. You’re far more likely to have stronger, healthier knees from running than to suffer any damage. We have a more detailed breakdown of this myth here. Strong leg muscles will protect your joints, and running may even be better for your knees than lower-impact exercises like cycling and swimming.

Stretching doesn’t prevent injury, despite what you may have been told. You also don’t need to stretch before any exercise unless you’re dealing with a specific mobility issue (for example, if your hips are tight, hip stretches may make your run more comfortable—but if you don’t have this issue, a pre-run stretch isn’t necessary). Dynamic stretches can be a good warmup before a run, but static stretches are usually best left for the end.

Here’s a well kept secret: walking and running are almost the same thing. I blame the “Couch to 5K” program for making people think that walking is somehow the opposite of running. In truth, you get similar if not identical cardiovascular benefits from fast walking and slow running. For many of us, walk “breaks” are an excellent tool for getting through a run at an easy overall effort.

It’s true that walking is good exercise, as noted on the last slide. And it’s true that walking is often a more accessible option for beginners and for people who find running to be uncomfortable at first. If that’s you, great! You can walk for now, and if you feel like running later, that’s also a good option.

But that doesn’t mean you have to walk. Go out and give running a try if you want to. Ramp up your mileage slowly, and listen to your body if something starts to hurt—which is good advice for anybody.

“Jogging” and “running” are two English words that we apply to the action of covering distance by taking small leaps from foot to foot. It’s the same motion, but we use the word “jogging” for when the pace is slower and “running” when it’s faster.

There’s no official cutoff, so you don’t need to measure anything to find out whether you are a “jogger” or a “runner.” It’s okay to call everything a run, even if your pace is on the slower side: you’re going out for a run, you’re a runner, you wear running shoes. Some people refer to their slower, easy-paced runs as “jogs” and the ones where they go fast as “runs.” It’s all the same thing, so call it what you prefer.

Exercise can affect how many calories you burn, so it’s possible to use it as a tool for weight loss. (For example, if you run frequently, you’ll be able to eat more while still staying on track.) But running itself doesn’t make you lose weight, and it doesn’t even burn as many calories as you think. It’s pretty common for people to take up running and not change in size, or even to gain weight as they build muscle and learn to eat more to better fuel their athletic efforts.

Forget the wet footprint tests and the running store analyses: studies have repeatedly found that shoe choice doesn’t matter nearly as much as we think it does, and that your “foot type” isn’t necessary to know before buying shoes. Go with whatever feels comfortable to run in.

The more you run, the faster you’ll be able to run. But that doesn’t mean that you should always try to run your fastest. Training runs are not races, okay? You build the capability to run faster by putting in lots of slow, easy miles. Don’t judge your progress by whether your easy run was faster today than yesterday. Instead, commit to putting in a month’s worth of easy mileage and then do a race or a time trial and see how much you’ve improved.

Running uses your legs, but that doesn’t mean it replaces leg day at the gym. If you want to get stronger, you need to give your legs more of a strength challenge than they get on a run. Think about it: if you can do 10,000 reps in a set (the number of steps in a five-mile run), it’s not really equivalent to strength training.

Drinking enough is important, but you only need to replace what you’re losing from sweat and from your breath. You don’t need to drink gallons of water just to get through a short workout. In the extreme, too much water can actually cause health issues like hyponatremia. Most of us can reliably hydrate well simply by drinking as much as we’re thirsty for.

There are only a handful of races (like the Boston marathon) where you need to prove you are a fast runner before you sign up. For most local 5Ks and 10Ks, you can go as slow as you want and still have a good time. Many expect a contingent of walkers, nearly all of whom will finish behind you even if your running pace is leisurely. And if you’re enough of a runner to even think about running a half or full marathon, you deserve to sign up no matter your pace. Just check course time limits if you think you’ll be on the slower end.

Shoe manufacturers want us to replace our shoes every 300 to 500 miles—the sooner the better from their perspective. But the actual lifespan of a pair of running shoes depends on several factors, among them: what they’re made of, how heavy you are, and how important cushioning is to you. We take a detailed look at the question here. Bottom line: most shoes should be replaced somewhere in that 300-to-500 mile range, but plenty will have a useful lifespan well beyond that.

There are ways to move your body more and less efficiently when you run, so running form is a real thing. But not only does it vary from person to person, it’s a thing you learn over time. As running coach Jason Fitzgerald told us that it’s not a big deal to have “bad” form as a beginner. The more you run, the more chances you’re giving your body to find its own optimal form. If you want to improve your form more quickly, try increasing your cadence; it’s easier to find that efficient form at 160 steps per minute than if you’re stretching out each footstep and only getting, say, 120.

There is a “10% rule” that many runners will swear by: this week’s mileage should be only 10% more than what you ran last week. It’s not a bad idea, because injuries tend to stem from increasing volume or intensity “too much, too fast.” But 10% isn’t a magic number. If you run 10 miles a week, you don’t have to inch up to 11 and then 12 and so on.

Beginners who run low mileage, and people coming back after a break, can usually safely increase by more than 10% from week to week. And people who are already running high mileage may do better with either smaller increases or by holding steady at the same mileage for a while and incorporating “cutback weeks” that give you a bit of a break before increasing again.

These days, fitness trackers and phone apps seem determined to send a silent message that all workouts must be tracked. But the real benefits of running are recorded in your body, not on your phone. It is totally fine to go out for a run and have no clue how fast you ran or exactly how many minutes or miles it took. It still counts, promise.