'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 153 miles down and 1,646 miles to go

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 10 more miles since my last update. I walked/jogged five miles on Sunday and five miles on Friday. So far, I’ve logged 153 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 1,646 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 8.5 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the ninth day of his trip. I left off on my last update on Day 8 at Mile 143, after Frodo’s group, which now includes Strider (Aragorn), has left Bree on the East Road and has headed north into Chetwood. Four miles later, at Mile 147, the group camps in Chetwood, east of Archet.

 

The next day, Day 9, which is Oct. 1 on the Middle Earth calendar, the group continues east as the group continues to drop slowly. This stretch of the journey is quiet and peaceful. I cover six more miles up to Mile 153, which is 10 miles short of the next checkpoint, where the group camps in eastern Chetwood at the end of Day 9.

 

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.

 

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 1,799 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 10 more miles next week, and I’ll include all that in my update next week.