Denethor's plunge

[Sauron the White]

Alatar - the problem with your statement here

So for me, if a normal average healthy human could walk 30 miles in 8 hours, having done some walking previously, and seemingly could do this every day for three days, for exceptional persons the remaining 45 miles doesn't seem too much of a stretch.

is that you are taking the idea of a very vigorous walk which by itself would be taxing, and adding to that more than a half marathon each day. Again, for the untrained runner, just the half marathon alone - 15 miles - would be something that they could not run. The idea that an untrained person could do both is beyond reason.

But keep on trying.

Again, if JRRT had stated that the three had walked ten hours each day, then it could be withing the realm of possibility. Even then, I cannot speak with confidence about the ability of the untrained person to walk 45 miles each day for three straight days. But it is more believable than the running and striding descriptions in LOTR.

But I am convinced that the good Professor knew next to nothing about long distance running and the toll it takes on the body. In his defense, the long distance running book that came complete with mass market books, magazines and research did not come until after his death and the LOTR had been out for some time. People in the 40's might have well believed that willpower and resolve were more important in long distance running than anything else. I imagine all the medical documentation about glycogen and muscle absorption rates and rates of burning it as fuel were not available to the Professor in the decade of the 40's. So its not his fault.

The first time I had read LOTR - in 1971 or 72 - I had not yet begun the hobby of running and that chapter went right by me without so much as a raised eyebrow. It was only later, after immersing myself into long distance running and the literature that I read that chapter again and it just stood out like a sore thumb.

from Quempel

There is no proof he did not train either, so I guess my assumption is right and proper.

You seem to be stuck on this whole Gimli being able to run issue. I have to wonder why, projecting emotions of some sort maybe?

Are you really saying that you cannot prove something that is a positive but I am in error because I cannot prove a negative? That defies all the normal rules of debate and logic.

If any author, JRRT included, introduces something that is far beyond the normal, it is his obligation to support it with some foundation to make it believable. That did not happen with this issue.

Again, the whole point of the Gimli running issue is to show that JRRT had some holes and errors in his tale and many here have no trouble rationalizing or accepting it. But heaven help the movies if they do the same.

As for projection of my own emotional issues.... I am clueless about what you may mean about that.