How long could you jog for? Life or death.

Stephen King as a short story about the very topic. If you stopped running you were killed.

Might have been the premise of a movie with Arnold and Richard Dawson called "The Running Man".

can I have any food and/or water?

He also has a book called "The Long Walk".

The premise is that the people have to maintain a speed of at least 4 mph. If they drop below 4 mph, they get a warning. On their third warning, they get shot in the head. The main character went for something like three days.

It was a very good book, as was, "The Running Man".

Probably until I died. One way or the other.

The book is called "The Long Walk" — I've read it a few times, and it's one of the few books that I read and then went out and bought.

Actually, they didn't run, they walked. If they got below 4 mph three times within a certain time frame then they were shot. There was only on winner in the annul walk, the rest of them died.

I recommend this book to anyone, especially long-distance runners. If I could turn any book into a movie, it would be this one.

I think that the MPH rule is a good one. I would need to take bathroom breaks every so often and these would need to be accounted for. Also, under the mph rule, could we accumulate miles and take a rest for a few hours if we decided we were ahead enough? Food and water would also play into it

Sorry, didn't see the message above before I posted.

No restroom breaks. You can't accumulate time. Once you get below 4 mph, you get a warning. If you continue to stay below 4 mph for another 20 seconds (or so), you get another warning. And once you get your third warning, you're shot on the spot. After an hour, the warnings start back over though.

Basically, you can never stop for very long without using all three warnings. If you have to use the bathroom, you go on yourself. If you have to work out a cramp, you work it out while you stay above the speed. Whatever you have to do, you keep walking.

So it's best to stay right at or above 4 mph to conserve energy. No breaks. It's all about time, not distance.

Read that book or story (I believe it was a novella) a long time ago, and as a runner, liked the concept. As I recall, one guy started mouthing off to the guards that monitored the speed and took out the stragglers, so instead of shooting him in the head, they shot him in the gut instead, so he would suffer a long time before dying. I believe the prize for the winner was whatever he wanted.

If you are going to get shot to death once you stop, and since you can't stop to sh*t or eat, why bother ?!! Shoot me now and get it over with.

I'm not afraid of dying so it wouldn't matter to me.

Good one brother! Looking forward to greeting you at the pearly gates of Heaven.

trailrunner65 wrote:

If you are going to get shot to death once you stop, and since you can't stop to sh*t or eat, why bother ?!! Shoot me now and get it over with.

because the last person alive wins a totally awesome prize.

trailrunner65 wrote:

If you are going to get shot to death once you stop, and since you can't stop to sh*t or eat, why bother ?!! Shoot me now and get it over with.

No joke. F*** that. I would not give them the entertainment.

For anyyone interested in ultra events or in finding out more about what you are capable of endurance wise I highly recommend trying the following:

Set a easy goal for yourself in terms of miles per hour and then go our on a short loop or a track and bring a cooler and see how long you can keep up that number of miles per hour.

I did this when before I entered a 12 hour event. I had never run further than a marathon before but thought it would be fun to enter and ultra like this see what I could do. So as a practice session I went to a local jogging loop, set up a big umbrella, chair and a cooler of goodies and proceeded to see how long I could run 6 miles per hour. The first hour I just ran the 6 miles easy in about 45 minutes and then sat in the chair and sipped Gatorade for the last 15 minutes. Then I got up and repeated that. After the 3rd hour I started to get tired so I decided to run 3 miles, take a break then run 3 more. Eventually it got down to 3 x 2 miles and by 7 hours I was completely toast. I had done 42 miles and was spent. But i learned from this. I figured well one of my problems was just sitting during my breaks. So a few weeks later i decided to break my runs into section interspered with walks at which time I'd drink, eat a gel or other food but I wouldn't stop moving except when nature called. This helped. I stopped at 6 hours this time, by design, and wasn't nearly as bad off as I was the previous time.

I found that ultra running wasn't as easy as I had thought it would be and I learned what happened to my body as I got really tired and what I could do differently to help fend that off.

Eventually by the time the race came around I was able to make it 68 miles in tha 12 hours and I now understand myself my body and limits alot better.

"I'm not afraid of dying so it wouldn't matter to me."

Of course you are. If you weren't you wouldn't need to invent some better, everlasting life and some benevolent sky buddy who is concerned about the daily details of your insignificant life.

What sort of "you" could possibly exist in heaven absent your brain. "You" at 20? "You" at 40? "You" at 80. What age are you frozen at for your heavenly eternity? If you die with Alzheimers, will you have Alzheimer's in heaven? Is there "free will" in heaven (or the complexity that we mistakenly call free will)? If not, what sort of life there is worth living.

Ingersoll wrote:

"I'm not afraid of dying so it wouldn't matter to me."

Of course you are. If you weren't you wouldn't need to invent some better, everlasting life and some benevolent sky buddy who is concerned about the daily details of your insignificant life.

What sort of "you" could possibly exist in heaven absent your brain. "You" at 20? "You" at 40? "You" at 80. What age are you frozen at for your heavenly eternity? If you die with Alzheimers, will you have Alzheimer's in heaven? Is there "free will" in heaven (or the complexity that we mistakenly call free will)? If not, what sort of life there is worth living.

Nope, not afraid a bit. I perfectly understand why the Bible calls Jesus our "blessed hope." I'd hate to think that this pitiful life is all there is. As the Bible says, if all we have is this current life, we are men and women to be most pitied.

I'm gald to see you have at least given some thought to Heaven and Jesus. You must think eternity with Jesus is possible to put that much thought in to it.

"For God so loved the world (you!) that he gave his only begotton Son. Whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16.

Turn your life over to Jesus now. He will change you. He will cleanse you. He will give you eternal life and peace in Heaven with him.

is someone following you in a car or something? why not just duck into the woods and haul ass and try to lose whoever has the gun. if they chase you into the woods go at them Rambo style.

All the contestants (100 teenage boys in all) are being followed by armed guys riding in trucks. And there is little possibility to escape them because most of the course is lined with rows of spectators shouting their asses off. It's been a while since I've read it, but I think at least one participant tried what you're suggesting and it didn't work out so well.

This was a fantastic story, and the kind that leaves you thinking about it, even when you're not reading, and well after you're done with it. I actually thought about it a few times when I ran the 100th Boston in '96. Just the experience of being watched by millions in person, as you endure pain and suffering, but keep going for as long as you can. Man, I gotta read that again.

The original question of this thread though is an interesting one. I have no clue how long I could jog for though. 50-60 miles maybe..?