Is it possible to walk 1,000,000 miles in one's lifetime?

October 22, 2008 5:46 PM

Is it hypothetically possible for a human to walk one million miles over the course of their lifetime?

I've read that the average person walks around 115,000 miles over their lifespan. At a recent birthday party, two of my friends got into a playful debate as to the possibility of walking 1,000,000 or more miles. Is this even possible? Assuming you did nothing but walk from the day you learned how, could you do it?

posted by 40 Watt to travel & transportation (19 comments total)

1,000,000/3mph (a decent speed) = 333,333.333 hrs
333,333.333 hrs/25,550 days (=365*70 years)= 13 hrs/day of walking

if you allow the person to live to 80, they still need to walk 11 hrs a day.
posted by emyd at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2008

A person in good shape, say a cancer patient with one leg, can walk/run ~25 miles a day, everyday.

Say you started walking a 1 year of age averaging 25 miles a dayand lived to 81 (better than average for most of the world) for easy math. That's 80*365.25*25=730500miles.

So either you have to make it to over a hundred years of age or you'd have to average better than 35 miles a day to walk a million in a lifetime.
posted by Mitheral at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2008

It doesn't at all seem inconceivable that someone could walk 10x more than average. However that is an average of 34 miles a day for 80 years. Which may not be impossible but would certainly be pretty freaking hardcore.
posted by aubilenon at 6:00 PM on October 22, 2008

I suppose so, but the math for a (generous) 70 year walking career says that you'd have to average 40 miles a day, every day.
posted by rhizome at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2008

Hypothetically?

Lets say you have 50 years of good walking in you. 50 years * 365 days = 18250 days.

1 million miles / 18250 days = 55 miles a day. Thats the equivalent of walking 2 marathons a day every day for your entire walking life, lets say from age 15 to age 65.

It would take, at an average walking speed of 3.5 miles per hour, almost 16 hours of continuous walking to meet this goal each day. That leaves 8 hours for sleeping! And then more walking! Possible? Sure! But you better get started early.

If you had 60 years of walking it would be 45 miles a day... 70 years is probably pushing it as you would be 85 if you started your walking extravaganza when you were 15, but only 40 miles a day.
posted by outsider at 6:01 PM on October 22, 2008 [1 favorite]

Why don't you calculate it?
3 miles/hour * 10 hours/day * 365 days/year * 80 years/life = 870,000 miles. Walk a bit faster, or longer, and you reach a million.

However, I am not implying that it is realistic...
posted by aroberge at 6:02 PM on October 22, 2008

Assuming a stride of 1 yard, this will take 55.77 years according to google's calculator.
uninterrupted. [at 1 stride/second]

with 1/3 of your life devoted to sleeping or eating or whatever, that's maybe 83 years.
But I suck at math, so please correct me, other people.

I call that a 'no', though. in terms of practicality. Because I didn't even factor in any time to do stuff like 'learn to walk'.
posted by Acari at 6:05 PM on October 22, 2008

Wikipedia says that the average walking speed of an adult human is 3 mph. So if

1) you learned to walk at age 1
2) you were preternaturally quick and hit that adult speed right away
3) you decided to walk for 16 hours a day

You would hit 1,000,000 miles before you turned 59. Just in time to retire early. From walking.

If you only did a marathon every day of your life starting at 1 and going 75 years in a row, you'd never make it (only 711,750 miles). Slow and steady wins the race, as it were.

Now, I suspect that there's a physiological component to your question, too. I an't speak to that.
posted by baltimoretim at 6:07 PM on October 22, 2008

How fast do racewalkers walk?

It's probably possible, but it's also highly unlikely.
posted by box at 7:03 PM on October 22, 2008

May I remind everyone that it is not possible for a person to walk 24 hours a day.

You will need to sleep, after all. Setting aside even 4 hours per day puts a significant crimp in all the mathematical gymnastics people are doing above.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:19 PM on October 22, 2008

Not mine Cool Papa Bell. Terry Fox averaged 23+ miles per day during his marathon of hope. On one leg. With cancer as it turned out. I'd assume a toddler capable of walking all day at age 1 would be able to beat that by 10% easy.
posted by Mitheral at 10:24 PM on October 22, 2008

Saying Terry did 23+ miles in a day on one leg is a little misleading, he covered the distance as a biped, he didn't hop.

To attempt to think that a one year old child could actually, really cover 25 miles in a single day is such a leap of mental gymnastics that it makes me slightly dizzy.

A one year old averages what, three feet tall? They walk flat-footed, don't swing their arms, keep their knees bent at all times to help with the whole not landing on your arse/face situation common amongst children of that age, which causes a small stride length. Perhaps eight inches, those legs are going to pick up some chaffing heat.

Also, they seem to average around 40cm/s (0.8mph)[1]

Then factoring in toddler sleep time, eating, crying and general tantrum throwing, it's not even feasible to think a toddler could walk that distance, yet alone beat a well-trained human to the finish line.


[1]"In energetic analysis it is generally required that the average walking speed is fairly constant over the whole trial. Toddlers, however, are constantly accelerating and decelerating, taking a few steps and stopping again. The average net speed change over a trial amounts to 0.10 m s-1. Because of their low walking speed this accounts for an average variation in speed of 25%." Mechanical Energy In Toddler Gait
posted by Static Vagabond at 12:12 AM on October 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

How fast do racewalkers walk?

Let's say 50km in 4 hours. So 7.7 miles per hour.

At 10 hours a day you'd cover 1,000,000 miles in a manageable 35 years.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:14 AM on October 23, 2008

One problem with walking a marathon (or two) every day for several years without allowing any time for the body to recover is that your bones would be such terrible shape that you'd be unable to walk at all.

Can we just end this thread with a simple 'no'?
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:04 AM on October 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

No.
posted by pixlboi at 8:38 AM on October 23, 2008

Well, A recent study of the Amish population (for Obesity and Health issues) shows that the average Amish male walks in excess of 18000 steps per day. At an estimate of a just shy of a 2 ft stride, that's 6 miles per day. (You could adjust for the early years by reducing the stride and total number of steps daily)


The study goes on to compare obesity and BMI numbers with modern Americans (who find it hard to consistently fit 10,000 steps per day into their schedules). Funnily enough, the only day the Amish AVERAGE dropped to 10k per day was on Sunday, their "day of rest" (More details about the "lazy/touristy" Amish in the article"

Anyway, a typical Amish male could conceivably hit the 100k mile mark in the following way:
Counting from age 11 to age 78:

Age Steps Miles Yearly
11 12000 4.00 1000
12 12000 4.00 1000
13 12000 4.00 1000
14 15000 5.00 1250
15 15000 5.00 1250
16 18000 6.00 1500
17 18000 6.00 1500
18 18000 6.00 1500
19 18000 6.00 1500
20 18000 6.00 1500
rinse and repeat...


A normal farm-working Amish male would only hit 100,000 after almost 70 years. So, as previusly stated, you're need to dedicate a large portion of your life simply to reaching the goal, unless your joints and bones and tendons gave way long before you could conceivably do so.
posted by emjay at 8:40 AM on October 23, 2008

Terry Fox averaged 23+ miles per day during his marathon of hope.

I said it was not possible to walk 24 hours a day.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 9:49 AM on October 23, 2008

Not a direct answer to your question, but it looks like there is at least one person who has bicycled more than a million miles and another who is shooting for it and more than halfway there.

(Of course you can go maybe 5X faster on a bicycle than normal walking speed, so that's what makes it possible. It's quite usual for people to bicycle 25-30 miles/day, just not without a break for the 90+ years it would take to make a million miles.)
posted by flug at 11:09 AM on October 23, 2008

Many thanks to all of you for the varied answers. Looks like it may be possible, or maybe not. Either way, a fun discussion.
posted by 40 Watt at 1:01 PM on October 24, 2008