Friday, March 27, 2015
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 108 miles down and 1,691 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m still only on the sixth day of his trip. I
left off on my last update at Mile 104, on Day 6 (Sept. 28), as Frodo’s group
left Tom Bombadil’s house and climbed a zig-zag path to the brow of a hill on
the west side of Barrow-downs. They reach the top of the hill around 9 a.m.
Frodo’s group travels 14 miles before noon, and I’ve only covered 10 miles of
that distance. I’ve got four more to go before reaching the next significant
point on the journey.
For
those of you reading this for the first time, I began this “Walk to Mordor” fitness
challenge on Jan. 1. Using a book called “The Atlas of Middle-Earth” by Karen
Wynn Fonstad, fans of “The Lord of the Rings” created this challenge by mapping
out Frodo’s fictional trek to Mordor, calculating the total distance at 1,799
miles. They also used the original "Lord of the Rings" text to
outline the journey, so you can follow their route by keeping up with your
total mileage.
Those
who worked out the nuts and bolts of this virtual journey have divided it into
four parts. It’s 458 miles from Hobbiton to Rivendell, 462 miles from Rivendell
through Moria to Lothlorien, 389 miles from Lothlorien down the Anduin to
Rauros Falls and 470 miles from Rauros to Mount Doom. (Those locations should
sound familiar to “Lord of the Rings” fans.) The hobbits averaged 18 miles a
day, but if you walk (or jog, as I sometimes do) five miles a day, it’s
possible to cover 1,799 miles in a year.
If
you’re interested in learning more about the “Walk to Mordor Challenge,” I
suggest you check out two Web sites, http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2012/07/23/walking/
and http://home.insightbb.com/~eowynchallenge/.
Both of these sites provide a ton of details about the challenge, including how
to get started.
In
the end, check back next Friday for another update and to see how much closer I
am to Mordor. I hope to knock out at least 13 more miles next week, and I’ll
include all that in my update next week.
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