'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 421 miles down and 1,378 miles to go

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 19 more miles since my last update. I walked/jogged four miles on Sunday, three miles on Wednesday and 12 more miles yesterday (Thursday). So far, I’ve logged 421 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 1,378 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 23.4 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the 26th day of his trip, which is Oct. 19 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off on my last update on Mile 402, which was three miles past where Frodo’s group returned to The Road after finding the Stone Trolls. Three miles later, while the group is looking for a place to came, they hear a horse and meet the elf, Glorfindel.

 

The group then proceeds to march all night, a total of 15 miles, while the wounded Frodo is being carried on the back of Glorfindel’s horse. At Mile 420, the group ends Day 18 by camping next to the road at dawn. The group camps for less than five hours before beginning Day 19.

 

So far, I’ve covered one mile from the start of Day 19, which brings me up to Mile 421. The next significant milestone comes eight miles later, at Mile 429, where the group crosses a small stream and stops to rest. In all the, the group covers 20 miles on Day 19.

 

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.