So what would be a plausible mid-60s footwear for the walk? Army-type boots? Leather shoes?
I’ll take this opportunity to ask a question that’s been bugging me about the book.
I read it as an adolescent about 20 years ago and I recall a scene where one of the boys is tempted in some way by a beautiful girl.
I vaguely remember him being called a victim of ‘blue balls’. This struck me as a fearful and dangerous condition at the time. As time passed, I grew to understand blue balls as a simple lack of sex when one is horny. The scene as I recall it, was more of a legit medical condition.
Can anybody shed some light on this? There’s a high possibility of me misremembering something, but can somebody give me the straight dope on the ‘blue balls’ scene? It would solve a 20 year-old confusion.
I just looked it up via Amazon’s “search inside this book” feature. Basically what happens is that one of the competitors goes off-course to try to get it on with a sexy and willing spectator. He can’t quite finish in time, though, and when he runs back onto the course, he gets a severe cramp due to “blue balls.” He already used up all of his warnings with the girl, so when the cramps slow him down again, he gets shot.
I don’t know if that’s a legit medical thing or not, but that’s the way it was described in the book.
Some kind of leather shoe, I would guess. Certainly, all us kids walked to and from school wearing leather shoes, and I don’t recall them as being uncomfortable to walk in. They were certainly hardier than those Keds, and lasted a lot longer.
I’m wondering about the respective ages of the ‘dead’ and ‘not dead’ camps. When I read it all those years ago it never occurred to me to think Garraty had died. But now I can only see the end as him running towards death.
Or The Walking Dude. He’s worse than Death.
“Dead” camp. Age 35. And for what it’s worth, I’ve read it that way since the first time I read it as a kid. I didn’t want to at first, because I was young enough to still have trouble with the concept that a story could have an unhappy ending. But I really couldn’t read it any other way.
As for the shoes, my dad has always sworn up and down that nothing is as comfortable for walking long distances in as a good worn-in pair of leather boots. I mean, there’s probably a reason that the Army doesn’t have the troops all wearing athletic shoes for long marches.
By the way, while I was looking things up, I saw that King specifically mentioned “PF Flyers” as the brand of sneaker that gave the one guy blisters.
King has a thing for PF Flyers though. He mentions the brand a lot for some reason.
Glad someone else brought up the end of Pet Semetary, too 
Love that one. It’s so horrible.
Because of this thread, I went back and read the book. I first read it in my early twenties and I’m 41 now. I still vote that he went crazy.
I thought that he just went insane at the end.
And I think that 4 mph is too fast to be called a “walk”. If you figure that 4 mph is the minimum speed, and not the average, it’s like completing a marathon every 6 hours, back to back, for days on end. While 4mph might be doable, for someone with long legs, without breaking into a jog, I don’t think that the story makes sense if they are practically jogging. The whole point is that they were just walking. It seems so simple to just walk that you think that you could do it indefinitely. That’s why so many teenage boys sign up to do it… it seems simple enough : just walk until the other 99 give up. I think I was about 14 when I first read it, and I remember thinking that I could walk forever. However, if it were jogging then I wouldn’t last more than a few hours at best.
ETA: so I think that King just guessed at a nice round number, but guessed too high by 1 or 2.
I didn’t think he went crazy or died at the end - I don’t think I really knew what to make of the ending. I think it’s about time for me to read it again, too.
Aaaaand - I don’t have the book. Time to go shopping!
Try used bookstores first, so you can get an edition of The Bachman Books that includes Rage. Or hell, PM me your address. I’ve got a spare.
For some real-world data on long (LONG!) distance racing check out the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race that just wrapped up for this year.
Some notes: Competitors at self-transcendence don’t compete 24 hours a day (not allowed to by the rules) but I don’t see the specific race times listed. I seem to recall it’s something like stop by 11pm start at 5am but that’s just a vague recollection. The days are consecutive though.
Just interesting data to think about while you read the novel.
Why in god’s name would anyone want to do that?
I’m sorry, but that isn’t correct. A 14-plus-minute mile (to allow a cushion over the 4 mph minimum) isn’t a jog. It isn’t a near-jog. It isn’t an Olympic-style race walk. It’s a fast walk–nothing more, nothing less.
I’m 53 years old, 5 feet 9 inches tall, and not in especially good shape due to a recent bout of plantar fasciitis. I just walked four miles in 56 minutes 57 seconds. At no time did I jog. At no time was I out of breath.
You don’t have to go much over the minimum to maintain pace. Once I hit my stride, without any conscious effort on my part, all my quarters were within a few seconds of each other in the 3:30-3:35 range.
At the end of the hour, I was tired. Had I continued, by the fourth hour I would either have been dead, or wished I was dead.
But again, I’m 53 years old. For a competition to determine the toughest of 100 fit young men, not intended to last more than a few days, four mph is a very realistic speed.
Because Stephen King wrote it. It may not be one of his best, but it’s far from his worst.
I agree…the subject is unfortunate and I can understand why it was pulled but…Rage is a story I enjoyed reading and one I think about from time to time in a sea of stories that didn’t make much of an impression.
To each their own, I thought it was awful.
I didn’t want to think that he died, but it made the most sense that Death was what he was running toward. I’ve long had trouble with scenes in books that aren’t crystal clear, though. I don’t like having to draw my own conclusions. 
BUMP
Well, I had some airplane time on a recent vacation, so I read this little opus.
I have a question for the people who say that Garraty dies at the end. Do you mean that he dies because he’s physically and/or emotionally wiped out from the stress of the walk? Or do you mean that he dies because The Major lied about the rules, and he’s shot by the Major or the soldiers?