'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 514 miles down and 1,285 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 more miles today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 514 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 1,285 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 28.6 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the fourth night of the trip past Rivendell, which is the night of Dec. 28-Dec. 29 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on Mile 504, which was where the Fellowship of the Ring crested the top of a hill and spotted a snowcapped peak to the east. Six miles later, at Mile 510, as conditions become cold and windy, the group makes camp and spends the day of Dec. 28 at this point.

 

At nightfall, the group resumes its travels and so far, I’ve logged four of the 15 miles the group covers on this night of the journey. The next significant milestone comes two miles later, at Mile 516, when the group reaches a small stream and begins following it west.

 

So far, I’m on track to travel the 462 miles from Rivendell to Lothlorien, which is the forest realm of the Elves, between Rivendell and Mordor, within the 2016 calendar year. To pull this off in a year’s time, I’ve got to travel at least 8.9 miles per week, that is, a little more than a mile a day. So far, so good, since I covered a total of 10 miles this week and 56 miles since the start of the calendar year.

 

For those of you reading this for the first time, I began this “Walk to Mordor” fitness challenge on Jan. 1, 2015. 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 13 more miles next week, and I’ll include all that in my update next week.