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Walking to Mordor

Updated: Jul 1, 2023


In the span of 47 days, I have walked 224.3 miles. According to the handy app, The Conqueror (not sponsored), which allows you to compete in virtual marathons, and thus is allowing me to follow in the footsteps of one Frodo Baggins (by distance, at least), this means I have walked the entire Shire (145 miles), have passed through Bree, and am now somewhat parallel with the Great East Road, some distance from Weathertop.

As you might imagine, my legs are quite sore. I am in severe need of finding a good "restorative stretch/yoga" routine.


Now, I love walking--a lot, I would even go so far to say--but I haven't really BEEN walking much over the past two years on account of us all being in lockdown.


I've been using my FitBit--which during this process has revealed some somewhat unpleasant things to me--mainly that on my busy work days I am lucky if I break 2k steps.


Definitely makes an argument to try to get up between meetings if I can find the time--or even walk DURING meetings that don't require me to be on camera and allow me to mosey about the apartment with my wireless headset.


Ultimately this has also brought up some... frustrations with how weight has settled differently during the pandemic. It feels like it's distributed differently and even more frustratingly, feels like it's taking far more time to adjust back to how it was--it it ever does.


I'm trying my best not to focus on that and just lean into the gamification of daily steps, walking my virtual marathon and living my best adventure hobbit life.


There are 5 total LOTR challenges, breaking up the epic pilgrimage to Mordor into manageable pieces. I finished The Shire challenge in 32 days. I'm currently now on The Fellowship, and while it's just me, I am tackling the entire 680 miles. My reasoning behind this is simple. The 1st, is I want to get my full money's worth and to me that means using the app as long as possible. The 2nd is that while the app allows you to split those miles among a fellowship of your own, my logic is that Frodo still had to walk 680 miles, regardless if he had friends with him. And that didn't even get him to Mordor! That's just when Hobbits were joined by others.


Also, I will say, the medals are fantastic. I know The Conqueror challenges are a bit spendy, but ultimately you're paying mostly for the medals. They're all metal, they've got heft, it's like a giant enamel pin but far stronger. I can't wait til I have all 5 and can put them in one big shadow box of accomplishment! But, obviously, that will be a while from now.


According to my current projects, I should be done with the 680 miles by Halloween of this year. But, who knows, things happen--there is a chance I will have to push that date back to make sure I remain safe etc.


That's a great thing about The Conqueror App--you set your own time limit. And if you don't meet it, it's not a waste of money, you just adjust. Things happen. You really are just paying for your medal and access to your tracking app.


Again, this isn't sponsored, but I'm pretty darn happy with this experience so far.


And if you don't want a medal and can't justify the price--there's also this wonderful free Walk To Mordor app!

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