Going on a Long Walk

I dig the automobile, and the freedom and thrills it can give you, I love the way planes can take me to places I'd only ever dreamed about, and there is nothing more fun than riding a bicycle down, a long, steep grade. But when it comes to travel preferences, I'm a walker.

I love the walk. I like that it takes longer and you get the chance to really think about things. I love the way it gets the blood pumping, and that you're not reliant on anything other than your own endurance. I've walked 20 kays to get home in the middle of the night (which always became morning again), over hills and down railway lines, pissed out of my brain; and when I was young and unemployed, it cost nothing to wander across town to go sit at the beach.

I get in at least one decent walk every day, and always feel better for it. It's undoubtedly good for you, and just looks far more relaxing than all those joggers, going round and round and round.

So I always thought thought I'd do great at The Long Walk. Written before he even got stuck into Carrie and later published under the Richard Bachman name, Stephen King's novella is terrifically brutal. It's a simple plot (but like all King, it's all about the characters): teenage boys take part in the kind of brutal competition you only get in a totalitarian future - you walk and walk and keep on walking, and if you give up walking, they fucking murder you. The one left standing gets their heart's desire.

I read that book in the 80s collection of Bachman novels when I was 14, and thought I'd finally found the one competition I could do well in. I'm not fast, but when I get into the zone, I could walk forever, man. I could take anyone on.

But I read it again recently and realised I would just be one of the faceless boys who dies in the periphery of the story, because it's clearer than ever that some kind of mental fortitude was way more important than the endurance.

I doubt - and obviously hope! - that I never have to display that kind of fortitude, which makes me a first class wimp. But if you want to go for a walk sometime, this wimp could still outpace you. Probably.