'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 606 miles down and 1,193 miles to go

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging nine more miles since my last update. I jogged three miles on Sunday, three more miles on Tuesday and three more miles today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 606 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 1,193 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 33.7 percent of the total trip.

 

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 16^th 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.