'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 993 miles down and 806 miles to go

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 10 more miles since my last update. I hiked four miles on Saturday, jogged/walked three miles on Sunday and three miles on Wednesday. So far, I’ve logged 993 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 806 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 55.2 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s journey, I’m on the third day of the trip past Lothlorien, which is Feb. 18 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on Mile 983, which was four miles from where the group was to camp on the west bank of the river at the end of the second day past Lothlorien. I reached this point, Mile 987, on Saturday.

 

Frodo’s group, the Fellowship of the Ring, left early on Feb. 18 and continued drifting down the Silverlode River. They encounter no enemies during this time, and I’ve covered six miles since the start of the day, taking me all the way to Mile 993. The next significant milestone comes 15 miles later, at Mile 1008, where the trees begin to thin and the sky becomes gray and overcast.

 

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.