Nope. You’re suggesting that somebody else interfere with the race. In the book, Percy’s mother interferes with the racers (not intentionally; she is concerned for her son but manages to bother the other racers anyway), and IIRC, she gets shot for her antics.
I can’t be the only one that’s feeling absolutely knackered just imagining taking part
How about a remote controlled RV? It would mean i’d need to carry the remote around, but that needn’t be all that heavy.
You’d get shot when you took the food off. Nothing that you can’t carry on your person.
When I was in the army on long road marches I always remembered that story. Doing 20 miles with a 40 pound backpack was grueling and I’d sometimes want to drop out and climb onto the “pussy wagon” (the truck that followed us). Then I would think about The Long Walk, look at the other soldiers marching along with slung weapons and just keep up the pace. I never dropped out.
Of course I know what you mean but this really gave me an image of a truck following you with all kinds of hot female strippers on it, or something.
It makes me want to sing “Greased Lightning”!
Which, regrettably, you can. In three minutes you will no longer have a head. A warning covers sixty seconds and if you haven’t picked up the pace, another is issued.
Understand; there is no way to cheat or exploit the rules. The expectation is that you will walk down the road under your own power at a minimum speed. Attempts to cheat mean either warnings (if you interfere with other walkers) or instant death without warnings (any other kind of cheating.) You walk, you stay above the minimum speed, or you get warnings. Too many warnings, you die. You have to win this by walking. There is no way around it. The question is, how do you prepare to win this by walking the field down?
As I said in the OP, the road is cleared and spectators cannot interfere. In any event, getting food is not a major issue, so this wouldn’t be a huge advantage, and if you step onto the RV, you die. That’s interference.
HEY! I already answered! 
Put a treadmill on the back of a truck. That way I’d be maintaining the pace on the treadmill and I’d definitely win.
You didn’t say anything about innovative solutions. It doesn’t break the rules as stated, including the one about bringing stuff because I’m not bringing the truck, it’s bringing me.
Nope - you have to walk the route yourself. You can’t change the rules at all. They simply wouldn’t allow you in with that stunt.
Carry raw hamburger for energy.
On second thought, no. Maybe if I did a lot of thinking about how I didn’t want to die a virgin.
Oh crap. Problem with that too…
There really is no clever strategy or trick that will give you much of an edge. You can be smart about what you wear and what you bring but ultimately it still comes down to being able and willing to keep grinding out the steps. The only way to really give yourself the best chance is to already be an endurance monster. Start training a couple of years in advance, basically just practicing non-stop walks, following the rules of the contest. Have someone driving beside with a stop watch to clock your speed and give you warnings. Grind out walk after walk and keep trying increase how far you can make it without getting “shot.”
If you start out the real event already having the ability to last a couple of days, you’d have not only a physical edge but a psychological one. Plus, you’d already know from experience exactly what to wear and what to carry with you. You’d even be experienced at pissing while walking backwards.
You still might not win but you’d maximize your chances and your confidence and seeming indefatiguability over the first couple of days of the walk would also get into the heads of the others and make them think they couldn’t beat you.
I didn’t change the rules. I used a glaring loophole.
A cyanide capsule.
Hmm… the OP doesn’t restrict receiving help from spectators, nor restrict spectators from interfering. So I could have the spectators kill the other 99 entrants. Were I feeling benign, here’s how I’d do it: I’d be an identical twin (or better, triplet) and swap as necessary. Preferably shortly after nightfall and shortly before dawn. Or in a generated cloud of smoke / mist / whatever. A team of friends would be shadowing me / us in a car (perhaps disguised as a camera crew).
Another way to do it would be to ‘carry’ a balloon with an engine. Hey, you’re carrying it on your back!
Umm… Rickjay, you’ve been revising the rules of this contest. How about you start another thread with the full rules?
Having some extra leg strength could help a bit, so I would definitely add weight training to my training regimen. Along those lines, I wonder if steroids would help more than they hurt… my guess is steroids wouldn’t be worth it.
Blood doping, on the other hand, might help quite a bit to increase endurance. Having a super enhanced red blood cell count helps your heart be more efficient, and gets more oxygen to all your muscles, reducing fatigue. Given all the medical studies showing its benefits, this is one trick I would expect most of the competitors to use.
I would definitely bring some speed or similar drug as well. Despite the problems of coming down off the high, you could always wait to take it until you had gotten two warnings in an hour. At that point, you really don’t have much to lose since you may be about to drop out anyway.
Well, if you really want to get into an argument with an evil, sadistic totalitarian government over the definition of the word “bring,” that’s certainly your right. But I think the only distinction you will earn is being the cleverest bullet-riddled carcass on the side of the road.
Those who have read the story can probibly remember Scramm. He did a lot of training and still got his ticket. I think you have to use the Garrity/McViries trick: Have friends, at least one who wants to see you walk just one more mile. Have someone who you do not want to see shot. The two of you will last until you are close to the end. Then you just walk the last person or two into the ground.
erie774
I do the same thing, every ruck march I have been on. I hve even tried to explain the story to others while we are marching. It does serve for motivation if you imagine that the truck is not there to pick up the stragglers, but to put a bullet through your head.
Sgt Schwartz
The OP may not, but the book does. In the book, spectators may not help (one example, paraphrased, “officials were telling Dom, as they undoubtedly did every year, that he could not offer free watermelon to the racers”), nor may spectators or outsiders interfere (again paraphrased, “the dog wouldn’t get off the road so the soldier shot it.”)
Spectators may cheer on their favourites (“Go Go Garrity Number 47 Maine’s Own”), or may be touched by competitors, as when Gribble dry humps the girl or when Garrity sees his mother and girlfriend in the crowd and goes to greet them, but spectators may not enter onto the road, they may not take the initiative in touching a racer, and they may not offer food or liquids to the racers.
Read the book and you’ll see that all the suggestions here are simply not allowed. The racers have to do it all by themselves. No loopholes, no guns for racers, no RVs, no balloons, no engines, no roller skates, no twins, no following cars, no anything except what they can carry and their will to continue.