Map showing the "Last Bridge" and Loudwater River. |
Friday, September 25, 2015
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 351 miles down and 1,448 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m still on the twentieth day of his trip, which
is Oct. 12 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off on my last update at Mile
341, which was five miles from the start of Day 20. Since then, I’ve covered 10
more miles.
In
all, Frodo’s group covers 19 miles on Day 20 and the next significant milestone
comes four miles later, at Mile 355, when the group camps at the end of the day
not far southwest of The Last Bridge. The group camp’s high enough that Merry
can see the Loudwater River far in the distance.
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 nine more miles next week, and I’ll
include all that in my update next week.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment