Here's Hoping the LOTR Challenger Event Isn't an April Fool's Joke on Us All

The Lord of the Rings virtual Challenger event launches in less than four hours. There's a lot of buzz about this one. It's five virtual walks that move only in order, so they can't be done concurrently. Also, prepurchased codes won't work for this challenge, so I can use the single pre-purchase I have left for a different challenge. I'm going to buy my LOTR Walk today sometime, but it's not urgent for me to be the first in line. I suspect there will be a LOT of us registering for this challenge - the buzz on the Facebook group is intense. At least one person has purchased the entire set of audio books to listen to while they are walking the Ring to Mordor and Mount Doom. I've owned the audio books since the early 2000's, but I'd rather continue listening to my Drizzt Do'Urden books right now. 

The Conqueror LOTR map looks like this. It doesn't seem 
like a long distance from the Shire to Mordor, but I expect 
it will take the better part of a year to get there at my usual 
pace. Although I try for 5 miles a day, there are a lot of 
times when I'm closer to three. My swimming is only one 
mile a day, but it's an intensive one mile, and I'm NOT 
giving that up for anything. My treadmill days start 
with 1-1/2 miles on the treadmill. I've found that's a 
distance that works very well for me. 

I'll buy my LOTR walk sometime today (provided their system doesn't crash from all of the people wanting to sign up immediately). I want to finish my current walk before starting LOTR, though. I'm currently traveling across The Great Wall in China, and it's been a lovely journey so far. The Great Wall is a total of 161 miles. I allocated 70 days for the challenge and I've completed 17% of it. I know the distances in LOTR are large - I've done the Eowyn challenge a couple of times. I expect when I begin walking to Mordor, it will take me the better part of a year to get there. It's a good thing I can stack challenges because this one will be very time consuming. 

Today is April Fool's Day, so be careful out there. Of 
course, with Challenger launching LOTR today, there's 
this little hamster in the back of my head telling me that 
it's all a big April Fool's Day joke. I really hope my 
hamster is mistaken and that it's a real walking challenge. 

But the longer challenges are rather fun too and there are some long ones I want to do. The longest five challenges they have are: (5) The Ring Road around Scotland - 828 miles/1,332 km, (4) The Length of the UK - 1084 miles, 1,743 km, (3) Appalachian Trail from the Eastern USA - 1,968 miles/3,167 km, (2) Route 66 across the USA - 2,280 miles/3,669 km, and (1) Pacific Crest Trail, again in the USA - 2,485 miles/4,000 km. Those are some serious distances. I'm not really sure where LOTR will fit into this in terms of mileage, but I do know that I want to walk it. So I'll be starting the LOTR challenge when I finish my Great Wall of China. 

There are always pictures to accompany any Challenger 
quest, and LOTR is no exception. The pictures they 
will be using are taken from the film trilogy, so they'll 
be very familiar to a lot of us. It's going to be fun to 
immerse myself in LOTR once again (after I'm done 
with my Great Wall challenge). 

Conqueror Challenges are not all long, though. Angkor Wat, the English Channel, Marathon to Athens, the Inca Trail, Berlin Wall, Amalfi Coast, Easter Island, Mt Everest, Trek to Petra, Flower Route (the Netherlands), Mount Fuji, and the Giza Pyramids, are all under 50 miles. I've done four of these, just trying to get used to tracking my progress every day and enjoying that sense of accomplishment when a medal arrives in the mail. I'm not sure if there's any intermediate medal for LOTR (probably not), and I know the distances will be rather vast, so I expect it'll take me a good long time to walk to Mordor. 

My running/walking shoes are actually in really 
good shape (when compared to these), but eventually 
I'll have to get a new pair. I really hate shopping for 
new exercise shoes - they have to fit right, and I'm 
picky. There's nothing worse than having shoes pinch 
or wiggle when I'm on the treadmill. 

It's going to be fun! Have an excellent Friday, I'll be doing my usual today - shopping, some cooking, and trying to get my next category up on Etsy. It's as clear as mud - LOL, but I will persevere. Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow.