Friday, April 15, 2016
'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 606 miles down and 1,193 miles to go
In
relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the tenth night of the trip past Rivendell,
which is the night of Jan. 2-Jan. 3 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my
last update on Mile 597, which was where Frodo’s group, the Fellowship of the
Ring, found themselves nine miles from where they crossed a small stream that
flowed west into a swampy area. Three miles later, at Mile 600, the group
camped during the daylight hours of Jan. 2, which was noted for being cold,
gray and windy.
The
group continued its journey on the night Jan. 2, and I’ve covered six miles
from the start of their walk on this night. The next significant milestone
comes two miles later, at Mile 608, where, after reaching a hilltop, the group
will turn southeast. In all, the group will cover 15 total miles on the Jan.
2-3 leg of their trip.
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 nine miles this week and 148 miles since the start of the
calendar year. Today is the 16th Friday of the calendar year, so
I’ve covered an average of 9.3 miles per week up to this point.
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 nine more miles next week, and I’ll
include all that in my update next week.
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