Chronicles of Ednoria

It may have been a bit rainy this week, but that didn't stop most people from getting in their miles. Long walkers this week are tacnukesoul, with over 30 miles; landkurt, with over a shield's worth, and lonebear and edward_stanford with over 15.

Looks like we may be losing slightlymadmom, whom I haven't seen hide nor hair of for weeks. Next week will be her last, unless she enters some miles by then. Come back, Shane slightlymadmom!

Savage shields of suffering:

- 41st for landkurt
- 53rd for koralleen
- 67th for edward_stanford
- 90th for tacnukesoul
- 91st for tacnukesoul
- 98th for silmaril
- 118th for lonebear

( Week 182 )

This week's totals: 134.98/28557.71
Average mileage: 10.38/197.75/2196.75 (Just coming off the crest of a rise, listening to Treebeard speak of Beleriand)

Hey, lookit me! I managed to get this out on Friday, for a change.

koralleen has started off running with Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas on her trip to Minas Tirith -- lots less live Orcs to worry about this way. And soprano1 has finally entered her miles from the last ten weeks, so our average mileage is up considerably. In fact, it's catching up to me!

lonebear is very very close to reaching Isengard -- who will you travel with next, lonebear? Are you sticking with Aragorn? I won't make you do the Isengard Half a second time. :-)

We're closing in on 30,000 miles -- anybody interested in another party?

Long walkers this week include lonebear, with over a shield's worth; and tacnukesoul, edward_stanford, landkurt, and soprano1 (averaged), with over 15. Some good solid mileage in there.

Newest shields:

- 4th for Gimli 100 miles!
- 34th for giraffeaholic
- 39th for landkurt
- 66th for edward_stanford
- 109th for soprano1
- 110th for soprano1
- 111th for soprano1
- 112th for soprano1 2800 miles!
- 113th for soprano1
- 114th for soprano1
- 115th for soprano1
- 116th for lonebear 2900 miles!

(And by the way -- Stupid steroids. I blame ARod.)

( Week 180 )

This week's totals: 301.82/28301.54
Average mileage: 23.22/178.04/2177.04 (Being carried by an Ent is a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime experience)

Congratulations to landkurt, who coasted in to Lothlorien, which was quite a beautiful spot, and perhaps even worth the trouble it took to get there. Now he's signed on for a cruise down the Silverlode River, to see the natural beauty of Rauros Falls as well as some Historic Monuments. Why not? What could possibly go wrong?

Our long walkers this week include landkurt, with over 30 miles; and lonebear, with a little more than a shield's worth. Huzzah!

Melty shields:

- 36th for landkurt 900 miles!
- 52nd for koralleen 1300 miles!
- 73rd for kugelblitz
- 87th for tacnukesoul
- 114th for lonebear

( Week 178 )

This week's totals: 115.75/27890.21
Average mileage: 8.9/146.4/2145.4 (The Isengard Orcs are outdistancing the Orcs of Mordor -- faster!)

Hello and welcome to Week 176. I know you're all thrilled to be here.

Our long walkers this week are lonebear, with over 30 miles; landkurt, with over 20, and tacnukesoul, with over 15. Really, it's quite amazing the way you (all three of you) manage to have such consistently high mileages week after week. Please continue to impress us.

New shields:

- 33rd for landkurt
- 34th for landkurt
- 58th for ednoria
- 65th for edward_stanford
- 86th for tacnukesoul
- 112th for lonebear 2800 miles!

( Week 176 )

This week's totals: 102.75/27522.89
Average mileage: 7.9/118.15/2117.15 (The sounds of Orcs panting and hobbits being jostled is about all that can be heard)

Well, not on time this week. But at least it's still the weekend.

Our long walkers this week are landkurt and tacnukesoul with over 30 miles; and lonebear with over 20. landkurt gets the "Missed it by That Much" award this week, with only three-tenths of a mile to go for his 32nd shield -- he'll have two shields next week, I'm betting.

I start a new poem this week, so here's the last "poem", actually a set of quotes from poems in the trilogy:

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them
He stood upon the bridge alone and Fire and Shadow Both defied
Tall ships and tall kings Three times Three
Learn now the lore of Living Creatures! First name the Four, the free peoples
Forth rode Théoden. Five nights and days / east and onward rode the Eorlingas
Through Folde and Fenmarch and the Firienwood / Six thousand spears to Sunlending
They clothed him then in elven-white, and Seven lights before him sent
The Countless stars of heaven's field / were mirrored in his silver shield
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie

I couldn't find anything with TWO in it, if you can believe it, which is why I used "Both". Nor could I find EIGHT, so I used "Countless" to mean "Infinity" with is an eight on its side. (And if you figured that one out, you're clearly paying too much attention to these posts.)

New shields:

- 31st for landkurt
- 84th for tacnukesoul 2100 miles!
- 110th for lonebear

( Week 174 )

This week's totals: 107.4/27288.3
Average mileage: 8.26/100.1/2099.1 (Now bumping along paralleling the Entwash -- at least it's drier here)

At long last, kugelblitz has made up a new shield for those who returned to Minas Tirith for the coronation (lonebear, soprano1, and tacnukesoul so far). I've added it in for this week and gone back and corrected it for the previous weeks as well.

Today we say goodbye to red_lynx, who has gone ten weeks without reporting mileage. Next week it's slightlymadmom. If you two have some mileage hidden away somewhere, enter it this week -- we'd rather keep you!

And it's official -- lonebear has passed soprano1 and now has the highest mileage of all of us. Congratulations, lonebear! You've really done a lot of work to get there.

Long walkers this week are landkurt with over 40 miles!!! and lonebear, with over 15. Huzzah!

A few new shields:

- 29th for landkurt
- 30th for landkurt
- 108th for lonebear 2700 miles!

( Week 172 )

This week's totals: 82.95/26984.22
Average mileage: 5.93/48.44/1927.44 (Now at the pool where Frodo and Sam stopped a few weeks back -- better clean up that Orc fire-ring)

Congratulations to kugelblitz, who made a fast sprint to Mount Doom, tossed the Ring in, and escaped via Eagle before Sauron's all-seeing Eye could blink. He'll be hanging from the talons of an Eagle for the next new weeks, so hopefully he at least brought a snack (perhaps some crispy fried Gollum).

And congratulations as well to thirdbase, who has reached Rivendell and spent a lovely weekend carousing with the Elves. They thought she was simply awesome, and didn't want to let her go, but she finally managed to give them the slip and head out over the moors for Lothlorien. She hears there are BOATS there. Woohoo!

Next week's update will be even later than usual, probably Tuesday, since we will be at Origins for the weekend. However, lonebear will be picking up the mileage, so do try to remember to enter it.

Our long RIDERS this week are kugelblitz, lonebear, and landkurt, all of whom have been spending significant amounts of time in the (bike) saddle -- they divide their mileage either 3 or 4 or 5, depending on who it is, so their totals reflect effort rather than actual mileage. But they're impressive anyway -- lonebear had over 40 miles worth, landkurt had over 35, and kugelblitz had over 30 miles. Our long WALKERS are 8_legs_better, with a several-week total of over 45 miles; and soprano1, tacnukesoul, and edward_stanford, each with almost 20. Wow! Despite all the rain we've been having, you guys are really humping!

And last but not least, please continue to think healing thoughts silmaril's way. Broken legs suck.

New shields:

- 27th for landkurt
- 32nd for giraffeaholic 800 miles!
- 41st for 8_legs_better
- 42nd for 8_legs_better
- 62nd for edward_stanford
- 71st for kugelblitz
- 81st for tacnukesoul
- 106th for lonebear
- 107th for lonebear
- 108th for soprano1 2700 miles!

( Week 170 )

This week's totals: 230.68/26793.71
Average mileage: 16.48/34.84/1913.84 (Now in Ithilien, walking through woods instead of slag heaps, a nice change

tacnukesoul has made it back to Minas Tirith for the big party, and since soprano1 was still there, they both started on the long road home together. However, soprano1 had been saving her miles for a few weeks, so she now has a comfortable lead on him. Congrats to you both -- it's a long haul back to Hobbiton, but I'm sure you'll make it!

Please send some healing thoughts silmaril's way, as she managed to break her leg in a tragic capoeira accident. She's in a lot of pain, and trying not to be bored to tears while spending a lot of time being non-mobile. Of course this means this is our change to CATCH UP TO HER! Ahem. Like we could. She could out-walk most of us with one foot in a cast -- oh, wait... Please get better soon, silmaril!

I expected we'd get a lot of mileage reported next week, since this weekend is the MS Bike Ride (go kugelblitz and lonebear!), but surprisingly there were a lot of miles this week too. Our average was over 13 miles! And it was split up between several people, not just one or two reporting weeks and weeks worth. Kudos to lonebear, with a two-week total of over 50 miles; soprano1, who has been saving up for a while, with over 45 miles; landkurt, with over 30 miles; and tacnukesoul, with almost 20. tacnukesoul is also now in the 2000 mile club, which is quite something.

New shields:

- 18th for thirdbase
- 25th for landkurt
- 26th for landkurt
- 57th for ednoria
- 80th for tacnukesoul 2000 miles!
- 104th for lonebear 2600 miles!
- 105th for lonebear
- 106th for soprano1
- 107th for soprano1

( Week 169 )

This week's totals: 190.1/26563.03
Average mileage: 13.58/18.36/1897.36 (Getting ready to camp for the night just along the road -- at least there's no more slag heaps)

Despite the rain, we did pretty good this week. Go us. Our long walkers are lonebear with over 30 miles; and landkurt with over 15.

Unsurprisingly, after last week, there aren't nearly as many new shields to celebrate. But there are a few:

- 23rd for landkurt
- 61st for edward_stanford
- 103rd for lonebear

( Week 167 )

This week's totals: 89.25/26280.96
Average mileage: 6.38/98.21/1877.21 (Should reach the Morannon next week -- hooray for Eagles!)

I'd like to welcome lonebear to the 100 shield club! So far, it's a very exclusive membership, with only himself and soprano1. But I have a feeling silmaril will join them in a few weeks -- after that, I don't think there's anybody close. Congratulations! 2500 miles of walking is quite an accomplishment.

Our long-walkers this week are lonebear with just shy of a shield's worth, and landkurt with over 15 miles. Hopefully we'll have more of these as the weather improves.

New shields:

- 56th for ednoria 1400 miles!
- 100th for lonebear 2500 miles!

( Week 165 )

This week's totals: 93.44/25765.84
Average mileage: 6.67/61.42/1840.42 (This traveling by Eagle can be quite uncomfortable)