Walking to Mordor - are you up to the challenge?

There's no denying it any longer, I'm a bit of a geek. I tried for the longest time to deny it, but anyone who has spent any time around will probably confirm this statement.

One of my greatest geeky loves is The Lord of the Rings franchise in all of its glorious forms, with one notable exception (that I don't need to discuss here). I've read the books a couple of times, watch the films at least once a year, collect the lego and play the online multiplayer game. I am still lusting for the Trivial Pursuit game, if anyone is stuck for christmas gifts ;)

I'd been pondering for a while how to incorporate my love of LotR into my exercise regime. Some months back, I stumbled across the Eowyn Challenge site, which gives the distances of the major legs of the journey from the shire through to Mordor and back again. Being lazy, I thought this would be a great idea, but only if there was an app for it. Wouldn't it be neat to have a little dynamic map that plots your daily steps into a map of Middle Earth. The idea lapsed into fancy and there it stayed.



It looked like Boromir was right - one does not simply walk into Mordor... or can they?

A few days ago, Miss A discovered and shared with me the Nerd Fitness blog post which further investigated the shire to mount doom hike, but with one difference - a hand spreadsheet to log and calculate distances! Almost an app.

Miss A made a few tweaks to the spreadsheet and has set up a group challenge to walk to Mordor and back again. Visit her blog, for the detailed challenge info and rules.

Everyone's distances contribute to the tally. The more of us participating, the faster we will get there. The fellowship will set out from Hobbiton on December 1. If you want to join up, head over to Miss A's blog and and let her know you're in.

We must take a hard road, a road unforeseen. There lies our hope, if hope it be. To walk into peril — to Mordor.

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