'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 693 miles down and 1,106 miles to go

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 16 more miles since my last update. I jogged/walked six miles on Sunday, five miles on Wednesday and five miles today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 693 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 1,106 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 38.5 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the sixteenth night of the trip past Rivendell, which is the night of Jan. 8-Jan. 9 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on Mile 677, which was two miles past where Frodo’s group, The Fellowship of the Ring, crossed a small stream and camped during the daylight hours of Jan. 7. One mile later, the group begins to see the Mountains of Moria in the distance. It’s eerily quiet, but the weather’s warmer and sunny.

 

Eight miles later, the group begins to climb up the north side of Hollin Ridge, and four miles later, they reach Hollin Ridge. Large holly trees mark the ridge, and the group establishes a day camp on the ridge. They plan to stay the night, but they leave at dusk after the crebain fly over.

 

So begins Night 16 from Rivendell, which is the night of Jan. 8-Jan. 9. One mile from the start of this day’s journey, the group, under the light of a full moon, strikes a good path that goes southeast toward the mountain pass. The path is lined with stones. I’ve covered two miles past this point, brining me to Mile 693. The next significant milestone comes 13 miles later, at Mile 706, where Frodo and Gandalf sense something flying over just before dawn.

 

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 16 miles this week and 235 miles since the start of the calendar year. Today is the 23rd Friday of the calendar year, so I’ve covered an average of 10.2 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.