this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2025
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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?

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[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 45 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

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

[–] blarghly@lemmy.world 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] CrazyHorse@lemmy.cafe 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Walking backwards works too!

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

A regular Plennie Wingo

[–] LadyButterfly@piefed.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

God that's a long distance! It's beyond me

[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 5 points 1 month ago
[–] treadful@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Like Dean Karzanes. Dude can run almost indefinitely.

[–] kaidenshi@lemmy.world 35 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature03052

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yep. It brought about a new hunting strategy that a lot of prey didn't have a counter strategy for.

[–] Wytch@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 month ago

Sweating is OP

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 31 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] AtariDump@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/terry-fox

[–] reptar@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Just learned about Terry Fox from Do Go On. What a legend

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Absolute legend!!!

[–] toddestan@lemmy.world 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Over 2000 miles, barefoot.

But Americans collapse after halfway across the parking lot.

[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] otp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Most are at airports, but it's amazing to me that number one is a shopping mall in Canada... albeit Canada's Texas.

The other non-airports were media-related amusement parks (mostly Disney)

[–] pinball_wizard@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"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 😲

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] village604@adultswim.fan 16 points 1 month ago (2 children)

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.

[–] feannag@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago

Ooohh. I definitely read that first as The Long Walk about Slawomir Rawicz's escape from the gulag to India.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago
[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Trail@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Assuming male, because it's the internet afterall, you don't need to stop walking to pee. Just saying.

[–] CandleTiger@programming.dev 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

You really do. Have you tried it?

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[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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

[–] Drekaridill@feddit.is 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't know what math you're using but 20 miles is 32.2 km

[–] Trail@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now multiply this by 3 and you will understand what he meant.

[–] SomeAmateur@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago

Yes you are both correct, I'll fix myself

[–] QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

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

[–] Qwel@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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

[–] Psythik@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

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.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 4 points 1 month ago

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.

[–] etchinghillside@reddthat.com 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The skin on your feet would be doing some lovely things and everything that could chafe would.

What would happen to your feet exactly?

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I'm not familiar with your source material. Are we talking about one continuous segment without stops, or can the walker rest at regular intervals?

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

No rest and no falling beneath below 3 miles per hour.

Edit: under lower than to lesser than (proof-read your posts)

[–] blimthepixie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 month ago (4 children)

No stopping and no falling below 3mph?

It's the plot for the latest in the Speed franchise

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

Only the book was published in the 70s.

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[–] Corporal_Punishment@feddit.uk 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I've not seen the film yet. I wonder, if there's no maximum speed can you just sprint ahead and then stop for a little rest?

[–] michaelmrose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

It's not about the average over time. You are required to keep a continuous pace. If you drop below spec you are given a warning. The fourth warning is a rain of lead in your body. You can lose a warning by keeping pace for one hour and you can accumulate addition warnings until mortality if you don't get back up to speed after a given warning.

So with no warnings you have less than 40 seconds to live if you just stop.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

They have guards that shoot you if you stop.

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