I saw that loophole, too. Use a remote controlled truck (thanks, Anaamika!) and it *technically * would be ok.
But yeah, as RickJay says, these don’t seem to be the type of guys to say “Well, gosh, he’s followed the rules, and by golly we can’t do anything to stop him! punches hand in frustration”.
There is no loophole. You must walk the course yourself. You cannot get around the rules or cheat, period. Please, I think the intent of the OP is clear, is it not? The question is how do you WALK A LONG WAY, not how do you come up with a smartass cheat that will get you shot before the event starts. In any event, a remote controlled truck wouldn’t even be OK according to the OP. Anything you bring you carry yourself, period. No bullshit.
Got a real strategy?
Work on the physical and mental toughness, I can’t see any other way around it. The fact that losing = death is a powerful incentive to keep moving, it’s not like there’s a silver medal. Everyone has that going for them.
There are people who have done some amazingly long runs and walks which required them to keep grinding out the miles day after day. 24-hour runs, Dean Karnazes doing fifty 50-mile runs in 50 days, the fellow (name escapes me) who did the American “triple crown” of hiking in one calendar year (PCT, AT, TAT in 365 continuous days) - one of my snowcamping instructors knew that last guy, he was averaging 30 miles a day, every day, on minimal sleep. He fell down a lot but kept going.
So I think that it’s certainly possible to walk for 3-4 days, nonstop. It’d probably wreck your body, but you could work towards it by doing an awful lot of walking to practice. Need good footgear and kneebraces and whatnot. Towards the end I’m sure that painkillers would be a necessity.
The mental toughness is harder to work on, but I guess that just constantly pushing yourself to break through the psychological barriers of dealing with pain, lack of sleep and whatnot is how to get used to them. I’ve pulled a 72-hour shift on 4.5 hours of sleep and while it wasn’t pleasant I was functioning, and I’m not a tower of strength. Sort of like the SEALS and their Hell Week (7 days of continuous physical and mental exertion on only a few hours sleep) - people are capable of much more than they think when they know how to handle stress. Maybe lots of practice meditating and shutting off outside stimuli; when I go on long hikes I often find that my higher consciousness just kind of takes a nap while I’m on autopilot and X miles down the path there’s a “Wow, how did I get here?” sensation.
For the mental aspect, I wonder if it would be good to try to think of what you are doing as heading for a destination? Personally I think the ‘pointlessness’ of just slogging out mile after mile would be a big drag, as well as dwelling on the fact that what you are doing is trying to walk 99 other people to death.
Instead, inside your mind, make yourself think of what you are doing as a vitally important hike to Florida. And that succeeding in your hike will save lives, bring fame and fortune, better the lives of those you care about…all that sort of thing.
So instead of just plodding, you can picture yourself as doing some vitally important task, like the original Iditarod. And each hour isn’t just 60 minutes of plodding, it’s four miles closer to Tampa.
(Or whatever a reasonable goal is.)
Humm…
Well, for the past 3.5 years I’ve had no car, so I’m pretty used to walking. I suppose if this walk was in June I would train between now and then doing as much walking/running as possible to build up endurance.
I’d bring gatoraide with me to stay hydrated, and I suppose my goal would be that my dad have a complete recovery from all that ails him. Personally, I think I would eschew drugs, because eventually you would burn out from them I think (although I don’t know how long it would take).
Now, I don’t know if fantastical wishes get to be granted at the end of this, but if they were I think I could walk a pretty long way.
I guess it would come down to what everyone was walking for.
You know? I think if I were still that age I might actually have half a chance. I can be deadly tenacious when I need to be.
Nowadays? Oh HELL no, I’d get blasted in the first day. 
Actually I think a combination of meth and painkillers might be helpful. I know a former meth head who stayed up for seven days once. I would be worried I’d be so messed up I wouldn’t care if I was shot or not.
Also the teamwork idea they used in the book and that Sgt Schwartz mentions would be helpful.
It’s not infallible by any means - recall the two brothers that walked together.
Ultimately, self-delusion is required. The Walkers that walked alone were ultimately picked apart mentally by the other Walkers, but the deaths of Walker companions also crushed many people in the book.
Airman Doors, there are no loopholes. This isn’t one of those movies where the coach tells the referee to show him the page in the rulebook where it says a monkey can’t kick field goals. The rulebook is the totalitarian government, which puts on this spectacle. Any rules lawyering earns you a bullet. Showing the public that wise-asses who try to bend the rules get a well-earned bullet is one of the purposes of holding the Long Walk.
There’s no appeal from the referee’s decision, and the only decision the referees have is whether to shoot you or not.
Can you have a spectator walk along near you instead of actually walking in the race? Say I was walking, could my husband as a spectator just keep pace with me and walk along the whole way so we could encourage each other without both of us being in danger of being shot? I would line the whole way having my family take turns to walk with me to be encouragement.
I would think that beyond being in good physical condition, the psychological game is the most important. That and sleep deprivation, so I would consult doctors and practice a regimen of uppers and painkillers at steady but low doses throughout, with a big dose saved for when I am in danger or near the end. Then I would play head games with people and convince them I was on some sort of super drug and would never need sleep or get tired. Plus get as many cheering fans as I could to cheer loudly for me and taunt everyone else, maybe I would promise to pay them if I won?
It would be interesting to set something up like this, obviously without the death part but with a similar scenario. I guess the closest thing I have seen are some of the endurance tests on Survivor. They don’t require huge physical skills but lots of endurance and mental strength.
Wouldn’t having someone walk with you without being in the race be classed as interference?
You can’t have someone walking the whole way without being in the race. There are places where it passes through town. Theoretically I suppose they could meet you at the first place, jump in the car, and drive to the next really fast. Better to have different family members waiting at each meeting place - that sounds like a good idea. But they can’t give you anything, and as the book says, eventually you start to feel resentment even for them.
And don’t forget they’re teens, so no wives. And there weren’t any girls, where there? I forget why.
I don’t have much to contribute to this thread that hasn’t been said already, but at that Wikipedia link they list Walker #30 as dying due to “Blue balls”. What’s the story behind that one? It’s been a while since I’ve read the book…
When all is said and done The Long Walk isn’t a race as such there being no official finishing line.
It’s a test of human endurance
He jumped on a willing female spectator, spent a nice moment or two with her, fully clothed and collecting warnings, and then moved on. However, for some reason he had trouble keeping up the pace afterwards.
I’m going to reiterate my earlier point: for those of us who haven’t read the original story, you keep changing the damn rules! If someone finds a clever way around the rules you’ve posted, don’t slap them down but applaud them.
Reposted because there’s no better way to say it.
Roller skates?
Ok, I would have family members set up at posts then and walk with me as much as possible. Not on the course, but nearby so I could see them and talk to them. And like I said, as many spectators / fans cheering for me as I could get, make the other walkers think I am the greatest thing ever. Just line the road with people cheering for me and taunting everyone else.
They are teens in the book but the OP asked how we would do it, not how the characters in the book should have done it. Assuming the same set of rules they had, so that’s what I am trying to do. The best mental trick I can think of is to make me think my child’s life is on the line, that would keep me going more than my own life actually. So I would have my child be visible to me as much as possible and think about the new life opportunity I could wish for at the end. It would be easier to give up if it only affects me, I would keep going longer for my child.
But the OP clearly says that the rules are set up by a totalitarian government for its own purposes. There are no clever ways of getting around the rules, since the rules are set by an impersonal and merciless dictatorship. Given that any infraction of the rules results in the walker getting shot by soldiers following behind in a halftrack, what do you expect?
Sit down? Shot. Rollers skates? Shot. Remote controlled car? Shot. Treadmill in an RV? Shot. Friends carrying food for you? They get shot and you get shot. The answer to every clever way around the rules is that they shoot you. There are soldiers watching the walkers every second, and there is no appeal, and no pretence of fairness. 100 people start the walk, 99 of them get shot. The whole point of the walk is to shoot those 99. To put hair on the pavement. That one guy eventually wins is almost irrelevant.