'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 1,296 miles down and 503 miles to go

Aragorn 

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 Wednesday and five more miles today (Saturday). So far, I’ve logged 1,296 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 503 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 72.0 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo’s overall journey to destroy the One Ring at Mount Doom in Mordor, I’m on the tenth day of the trip past Lothlorien, which is Feb. 25 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on Mile 1286, which was two miles past the point where Frodo’s group, the Fellowship of the Ring, passes through a channel that grows narrower as the river becomes swifter. Two miles later, Mile 1288, the group reaches the Argonath, and their boats are swept through the narrow gap between.

 

One miles later, Mile 1289, the Chasm of the Gates bends slightly to the west and one mile later, Mile 1290, around 2 p.m., the group passes out of the chasm and into the lake, Nen Hithoel. Three miles later, Mile 1293, the group rests in their boats and eat before they continue to paddle on. I’ve traveled three miles past this point to Mile 1296, and the next significant miles stone, Mile 1306, comes 10 miles later, where Aragorn leads the group toward the west bank.

 

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 10 more miles next week, and I’ll include all that in my update next week.