Friday, April 17, 2015
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 130 miles down and 1,669 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m still only on the seventh day of his trip. I
left off on my last update at Mile 123, where Frodo and his group have reached
a dike and hedge that represents the former boundary of Carolan. As many of you
will know Carolan was part of the North Kingdom of Arnor.
From
the hedge, Frodo’s group has to cover eight miles before they can return to the
Great East Road. During the past week, I covered seven of those eight miles, so
I’m almost there. The next significant milestone, after returning to the Great
East Road, will be the village of Bree, which is east of the Shire and south of
Fornost Erain. Right now, I’m about five miles from Bree, which I should arrive
at around the end of Day 7 at Mile 135.
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 eight more miles next week, and I’ll
include all that in my update next week.
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