Friday, May 15, 2015
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 165 miles down and 1,634 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the tenth day of his trip. I left off on my
last update on Day 9 at Mile 162 with one more mile to go before Frodo’s group
ended Day 9 by camping in the eastern Chetwood. On Wednesday, I not only passed
that milestone, but also logged two more additional miles. Those miles put me
into Day 10, which is Oct. 2 on the Middle Earth calendar.
At
Mile 165, Frodo’s group came out of the Chetwood. The next significant
milestone will come eight miles later, at Mile 173, when the group will enter
the western edge of the Midgewater Marshes.
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.
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