Tricia walked 22 miles | 1778 miles to Mordor
Rachel walked 27 miles | 1773 miles to Mordor

Week One: How Our Journey Began

A couple weeks ago, the internet advertised The Conquerer’s The Lord of the Rings Virtual Challenge, a $200 walking challenge that looked very cool, but…$200. I am always looking for a unique motivator to get outside and get moving, and I am a huge LotR fan. I figured I could make my own version for free, which is exactly what I spent my free time on holiday doing!

It turns out there are a lot of Middle-Earth nerds who want to retrace Frodo and Sam’s journey from Hobbiton to Mount Doom! I liked The Nerd Fitness Walking to Mordor and Back spreadsheet but wanted more milestones to enjoy along the way, so I used LOTR Project to calculate my own walking journey. The result is available for free in our Ko-Fi shop!

“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

The Fellowship of the Ring

Going Out Our Door

This week Rachel and I both started our journeys. We started the week with a hobbit-worthy afternoon tea (shown in the blog cover picture). We tried to keep our walking fairly typical, so this should be a fairly good foundational number.

Using my Fitbit app, I can see that I walked 21.97 miles this week. Since it takes 1,800 miles to get to Mount Doom, it will take me 82 weeks to walk there at this pace…that’s one year and 7.5 months. YIKES. I’ll see if I can step up the pace a little bit!

I’ll be blogging about my experiences semi-regularly, and I would love for you to join me. After all, what’s a walking journey without a fellowship?

Tag your photos and stories with

#rcrhobbitjourney to encourage each other!