Friday, June 5, 2015
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 202 miles down and 1,597 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the thirteenth day of his trip, which is
Oct. 5 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off on my last update on Day 11, at
Mile 186, which is after the point where Frodo’s group camped in the western
part of the Marshes at the end of Day 10. Eight miles later, at Mile 194 at the
end of Day 11, the group camps in the eastern part of the Marshes.
It’s
at this point that Frodo and Aragorn see flashes of light in the east during
the night. Fans of the novel, “The Fellowship of the Ring,” will know that
these flashes of light are Gandalf on Weathertop doing battle with the
Ringwraiths. As many of you know, these Ringwraith are hot on Frodo’s trail,
trying to take his magic ring.
The
next day, Day 12, the group covers four miles and at Mile 198, they end the day
by reaching the eastern edge of the Marshes. From this point, the group can see
the Weather Hills ahead and the land starts to rise. The land here is drier and
very barren and there are few birds.
So
far, from the start of Day 13, I’ve covered four miles and have got nine more
to go before I reach the next significant mile stone. The next significant
milestone will come at Mile 211, when the group will camp by a stream, among
stunted alder trees, at the end of Day 13.
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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