'WALK TO MORDOR' UPDATE: 1,613 miles down and 166 miles to go

The Tower of Cirith Ungol

I continued my (virtual) “Walk to Mordor” during the past week by logging 12 miles since my last update. I walked/jogged five miles on Saturday, two more on Sunday and five more today (Friday). So far, I’ve logged 1,613 total miles on this virtual trip to Mount Doom, and I’ve got 166 more miles to go before I reach Mordor. All in all, I’ve completed about 90.7 percent of the total trip.

 

In relation to Frodo Baggins’ overall journey to destroy the One Ring at Mount Doom in Mordor, I’m on the 18th day of the trip past Rauros Falls, which is March 14 on the Middle Earth calendar. I left off my last update on March 12 at Mile 1601, which was where Frodo, Samwise Gamgee and Gollum were inside the giant spider, Shelob’s, lair, feeling around for an opening on the right hand side of the lair. One mile later, at Mile 1602, Sam feels an opening on the right, and one mile later, at Mile 1603, Frodo feels an opening on the left.

 

One mile later, at Mile 1604, Frodo and Sam’s senses grow numb and they feel things hanging down from the top of the lair. One mile later, at Mile 1605, Sam leaves the righthand-side wall and holds on to Frodo. About 6-1/2 miles later, Frodo finds the opening to the main pit on the left side.

 

A quarter-mile later, the tunnel forks, but the left tunnel is closed with a door, and Frodo and Sam realize that Gollum is gone. It’s here that Shelob appears, but Frodo uses the Phial of Galadriel to drive off the giant spider. The tunnel rises steeply toward the exit, and they use the short-sword “Sting” to cut through the spider webs.

 

A quarter-mile later, at Mile 1612, Frodo runs ahead and is stung by Shelob. Sam fights off Gollum, reaches Frodo and drives off the giant spider, but it’s too late. Believing that Frodo is dead, Sam reluctantly takes the Ring and continues on. A half-mile later, Sam reaches the base of a flight of shallow steps to a cleft. A half-mile later, at Mile 1613, from the cleft to the Pass, Sam looks back. Hearing orcs, he puts on the Ring. When the orcs reach Frodo, Sam rushes back.

 

Sam follows the orcs back to the closed door in the Lair and hears the orcs say that Frodo isn’t dead. Sam climbs over the door and runs down the Under-way only to knocks himself out against the Tower door. It’s here that Sam sleeps through the night. At noon on March 14, Sam wakes up, returns through the Under-way and exits Shelob’s Lair. He reaches the cleft by the Tower of Cirith Ungol, puts on the ring, which lets him hear fighting in the Tower. He runs over the crown of the path and removes the Ring. He then climbs to the top of the Tower and rescues Frodo.

 

The next significant milestone comes at the start of the next day when Frodo and Sam reach the gate to the Tower around 5 a.m.

 

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 1,779 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 1,779 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.