How foot travel may affect your characters
I do a lot of long-distance running and hiking, and I wanted to write a VERY basic guide on how these things may affect a character! Hopefully this is useful to some people as a jumping-off point.
Please keep in mind this is just my personal experience, and it is very simplified. This is NOT all the information there is ever :)
Downhill travel
This is of course the easiest effort-wise, and a subtle downhill decline will be extremely easy to travel on. However, if the downhill is more steep, your character will very likely experience extreme knee pain (seriously, it is more intense than you’d think. Sometimes, downhill is harder than uphill.) depending on what they are wearing, they will also have their toes pushed to the front of their shoes, which will cause serious damage in the long term, such as ingrown toenails (again, more serious than many people may imagine), blisters, even fractures.
over time, issues like knee pain and blisters build up, and can make walking/running nearly impossible.
Travel on level ground
Naturally, this is quite easy, but it can also come with its own problems.
For one, on level ground you are likely to take many less breaks, which leads to more swelling, pain and stiffness in the feet, legs and joints in the long term. This is less of an issue, but is a good thing to mention when your character takes a break eventually.
Travelling uphill
This is the most effort-intensive way of travelling, and will cause extreme exhaustion in your character, as well as more heart pain or shortness of breath if they are unused to it.
If they are travelling up a slope, they will also experience stretching in their calves, which will cause intense pain at first. Uphill travel is definitely the most difficult, though when walking on steep uphills your character may take more breaks or travel slower, which can make it almost less exhausting than walking/running on a flat.
Travelling on uneven vs flat surfaces
When travelling on uneven ground (e.g. rocky trails, forest floors, some grass and sand, really anything organic) your character is much more likely to roll their ankle, slip and fall, etc. a small accident can ruin their ability to continue, which is a very good way to increase tension.
However, when travelling on flat ground (e.g. roads) your character will be making the same movement again and again, and will thus be at a greater risk of developing blisters. Again, this sounds inconsequential, but when not attended to, blisters can make travel nearly impossible.
Other considerations
Temperature and layers. exercise will drastically warm up your character. If they sweat, they will likely be even more cold when they stop. When running/hiking, it is a necessity to be able to remove layers while exercising, and add them once you stop. You’d be surprised how cold you get when you sit down after walking all day. If your character doesn’t have adequate layers, they may be suffering a lot.
Footwear is very important. Boots/stiff shoes are almost impossible to walk in for long periods of time, and shoes without adequate grip would be awful for rocky uphills. What is the ground like, and what are they wearing?
Different walking paces. If your character is walking in a group, they may be very split up as some are faster than others. How does this affect the dynamic? Who slows down for others? Who doesn’t? What happens if someone needs a break? Who is the same pace, and how do they interact? Additionally, if any character pushes themselves too much, they will become exhausted very fast, and will almost certainly end up slower. Alternatively, those keeping a slower pace than they need to will maintain their energy for much, much longer.
Load. If your character is carrying a lot of weight (e.g. a pack, or another character) they will be much, much slower, and will also suffer greater back pain and worse strain on their leg muscles and joints, and will have much worse balance
Sustenance. Your character will require much more food and water. If they can’t carry that, where will they source it?
Injuries/ frailties your character may be more prone to specific injuries or pains in certain areas such having very stiff calf muscles that make it hard to go uphill, more foot pain, stiff knees or hips, , more likeliness to develop blisters, etc etc. an injury can also cause many of these, and something like this can add tension to a story if need be, as well as developing a character through their physical capabilities and response to pain and discomfort.
Again, this isn’t at all comprehensive, and it may be complete common sense to some, but I hope it helps a little bit.
