Raymond Davis Garraty

Garraty is sixteen and arrives at the starting point with his mother. He says that he applied without any real expectations of being selected. When he was among the chosen field, he says that he felt it was a one-in-a-million opportunity. What he later learns is that being the circus fat lady is also a one-in-a-million opportunity, but that he hadn't realized that being among the walkers was to be the horrible reality it turned out to be. Garraty, from Maine, began to be touted as a hero as soon as he was affirmed and says that after the town had dinner, tea and other events in his honor, he simply couldn't back out, even when his girlfriend, mother and his mother's "friend" begged him to.

Garraty has stamina and is fit, but it takes some time for him to learn that it isn't going to...