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| Mount Doom! |
I continued my
(virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 15 more miles since
my last update. I walked/jogged five miles on Monday, five more on Wednesday and
five more today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 1,753 total miles on this virtual
trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 26 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All
in all, I’ve completed about 98.5 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 27th day of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 22 on the Middle
Earth calendar. I left off my last update on March 21 at Mile 1738, which was
13 miles into their travels that day, and one mile from where they rested after
finding a cistern with muddied water in the bottom. Two miles later, at Mile
1740, they camp just off the road at the end of the day on March 21 and hear a
horse-messenger gallop by during the night.
They begin March 22’s
travels by breaking camp and returning to the road to continue their journey.
Frodo ceases to speak at this point and begins to stumble as he fights against
the influence of The Ring. Four miles later, at Mile 1744, the stop to rest.
Three miles later, at
Mile 1747, they stop to eat. Mount Doom is due south from this point, so they
leave the road and turn toward it. Four miles later, at Mile 1751, the stop to
rest again. I’ve covered two miles past this point, to Mile 1753, at the next
significant milestone comes to miles later at the end of the day’s travels. It’s
here, at what’s known as the “Dreadful Nightfall” that they only have half a
bottle of water left. Frodo sleeps fitfully, and Samwise Gamgee sleeps very
little. Sam does, however, see the gleam from Gollum’s eyes outside their camp.
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.
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