'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 1,664 miles down and 115 miles to go

Faramir,  Prince of Ithilien.

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 15 miles since my last update. I walked/jogged five miles on Saturday, five miles on Sunday and five more today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 1,664 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 115 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 93.5 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo Baggins’ overall journey to destroy the One Ring at Mount Doom in Mordor, I’m on the 22nd day/night of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 17/18 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on March 16 at Mile 1649, which was 10 miles from the point where Frodo and Samwise Gamgee continued to walk in the dark along the eastern edge of the valley, headed toward Mount Doom. Two miles later, at Mile 1651, they reach a stagnant pool, which they can’t see in the dark.

 

Four miles later, at Mile 1655, the grey light of dawn breaks on March 17, and the two adventurers find a place to hide and sleep. Later, they awake and eat the last of Faramir’s food. When the sun sets and it gets quite dark, they begin their trek again.

 

Six miles later, at Mile 1661, they halt briefly. I’ve traveled three miles beyond this point to Mile 1664, and the next significant milestone, Mile 1667, comes three miles later, where they take another brief halt.

 

For those of you reading this for the first time, I began this “Walk to Mordor” fitness challenge on Jan. 1, 2015. Using a book called “The Atlas of Middle-Earth” by the late 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 1,779 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.

 

The folks 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 very 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 1,779 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 10 more miles next week, and I’ll include all that in my update next week.