When I was younger I could walk all day with no pain or fatigue or limitations. In 40s & 50s now feet & hips & low back scream "stop!" around mile 9.
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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your body is designed to keep going at all costs because we used to run around and chase things evolutionarily. iirc your body will start to digest your muscles in any sort of attempt to just keep going for a little longer
iirc at least. This knowledge comes from a "explain the joke" subreddit
The body is not designed to keep effort going at all costs. You will be informed when you have a cramp, because you should slow down and wait it out before continuing. The whole point of pain is to react to broken stuff, usually by stopping using it.
It will however keep life going at all costs, sometimes digesting replaceable muscles into energy for non-replaceable elements. But it's more about starvation resistance than about chasing. It could also be the case if we were a specie of static filter feeders
A lot of the human body has been affected by long walks and runs, and we do have (well, not me in particular) over-average stamina developped presumably for hunting. It's just the specific exemple of muscle digestion that I'm going after here
this knowledge comes from, uh... idk :3
Our ability to keep carrying on is what makes us unique. Most animals will eventually get so tired that their body literally shuts down and they can't proceed any further. Early humans used this to their advantage when hunting.
If you use the book's pace of 4 MPH, which is actually what many people would consider a brisk walk, 300-400 miles would take 75-100 hours, or around 3-4 days. That's a long time to stay up without sleeping, let alone being physically active the entire time. I'd guess someone who is really fit might be able to do half of that before collapsing, with most people probably not making past the first 24 hours.
Someone who was using drugs or doping might be able to do it, but even then I'd be skeptical.
I did wonder that they walked for days and hadn't done training for it. I just can't see it's possible
Ultra-marathon runners will typically run/jog for over 100 miles without stopping (except for a piss), and the hard-core ones will just piss themselves anyway.
With decent footwear and training the only thing stopping you from walking will be your need for sleep which will come at the 48-36 hour mark. But even then I suppose the desire to not be shot will keep you going further.
At an average walking pace of 4mph, you can walk 300 miles in just over 3 days without stopping
and the hard-core ones will just piss themselves anyway.
If you're a guy, you can walk and piss at the same time. Just walk sideways and whip your dick out.
God that's a long distance! It's beyond me
And me lol
I watched the long walk and now I’m reading the book. I was wondering, how credible is the distance? It’s 300 to 400 miles. What would happen to your body on the way?
I don't know what happens in the long walk, but if you mean nonstop, 300-400 miles isn't happening unless maybe as a death march. OTOH for someone who is in shape, 300-400 miles with stops for sleep and provisions is certainly doable. The Appalachian Trail is 2200 miles and lots of people through-hike it. It typically takes 5 to 7 months though some do it faster. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Trail
Oh man, the long walk sounds nuts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk_(novel)
Sleep deprivation, no pooping, etc. Yeah, I found Stephen King to be a horrible writer and never understood his appeal.
I haven't seen the movie, but the book is very detailed about how the death march is tearing apart their bodies and minds. Some basically sleepwalk and get the tiniest fraction of rest. But even those that do are driven insane.
I'm not really a fan of most of King's work, but The Long Walk is worth a read even if you don't like his other stuff.
My main dislike about the few King works that I read was that the characters got put into horror-like situations and then had no freedom of action. This sounds like another one of those. I guess I'll make a note of its existence in case I find it on a park bench someday, but I don't feel likely to go looking for it. Thanks.
I think he's a great writer that frequently drops the ball with the ending and has a few big flops.
However, he wrote the Green Mile and the Shawshank Redemption, which are awesome. He also wrote Thinner, which I quite liked. I recently read, I have to remember the date 11-23-69 I think it was. That was pretty good. I think many people liked the Shining. I personally never saw or read it though. So personally I have mixed feelings.
300-400 miles isn't happening unless maybe as a death march.
He-he, I guess you typed that before reading the wiki page.
But they do poop in the book and the movie. In quite graphic detail lol
It's been theorized that human beings' ability to walk or jog long distances is what brought us out of our primitive era and made us the most advanced species on the planet.
Yep. It brought about a new hunting strategy that a lot of prey didn't have a counter strategy for.
Sweating is OP
It is unknown what the the max distance is. Terry fox ran a marathon every day over the course of 140+ days and ran around 3500 miles ….. and he was missing a leg when he did it.
Was he running to find his leg?
Sort of, or the legs of others? Ran to raise money for cancer research and awareness, he's basically the closest thing we have to a secular Saint in mainstream Canadian culture. The Terry Fox Run is a staple of grade school life.
Just learned about Terry Fox from Do Go On. What a legend
Absolute legion!!!
But Americans collapse after halfway across the parking lot.
Holy shit
"Paweł undertook this challenge to raise money for the Diamond Soul Foundation, a charity he co-founded which supports people in their recovery from addiction. They also organize free one-week camps in Sicily for underprivileged children."
Very cool.
That's incredible 😲
The Appalachian Trail is about 2000 miles and a lot if people walk that. Worth a Google search. There are documentaries, memoirs, plenty of before/after photos, etc.
They mean without stopping.
If you're unfamiliar with the Long Walk, it's a story where a bunch of kids are in a contest to see who can walk the longest. If you stop walking, you get shot.
Oh, okay
Ooohh. I definitely read that first as The Long Walk about Slawomir Rawicz's escape from the gulag to India.
I mean I walk like 4 miles an hour when fresh so that would be like 100 hours if I could keep it up which im not sure I could keep it up for more than a few hours but like even assuming I could that would be over 4 days with no sleep which I doubt I can do. At some point I would be shambling like a zombie from the walking dead.
There was a pilrimage/challenge a friend of mine went on. It was walking 20 miles each day for 3 days for a total of 60 mi/96.5 km. That was in upstate NY where there are plenty of hills to keep it interesting
Blisters, chafing and fatigue is common but many people do that every year
I don't know what math you're using but 20 miles is 32.2 km
Now multiply this by 3 and you will understand what he meant.
Yes you are both correct, I'll fix myself
Without rest? I don't know. I could walk a marathon distance with the right shoes but would need to stop to pee. Two marathons? Probably not without training some months, and where would I find the time? Also, if it was in the day here, risk of heat exhaustion is pretty high at midday & afternoon.
300 miles? No.
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