Let's eat!

At the risk of no one ever looking at this blog again due to issues of supreme dorkiness, I would like to wish readers a very happy Hobbit Day.

Hobbit Day falls every year on September 22nd, Frodo and Bilbo Baggins' birthday in The Lord of the Rings. It was the day that Bilbo held his long-expected birthday party, as well as the day on which Frodo left Hobbiton on his journey, which would turn out to be the story of The Lord of the Rings. It is a real day as far as Chase's Calendar of Events (a reference book at the library) is concerned, so I'm not just making it up.

So what does that have to do with running?

For me, a lot. My return to running was driven by keeping track of my miles and comparing how far I had gone with the distances traveled by the Hobbits. Today I totaled up all of my miles since January, which was the last time I had checked where I was in Middle Earth. I was on the way from Isengard to Rivendell, following the Hobbits' journey home at the end of the book. Ironically, I was only 16 miles from Rivendell, on this day in which Frodo set out on his journey to Rivendell in the first place. This morning I ran 2 miles, which brought the distance down to 14 miles.

This whole thing is ridiculously dorky, I know, but there is a lot of sanity to it as well. Tolkien was a talented writer who had not only a great love of nature, but also an excellent capacity for describing it. So almost every time I head outside for a run, I see a place that reminds me of something I've read in Lord of the Rings.

So, besides journeying through Middle Earth, Hobbits also really love to eat, so celebrate Hobbit Day by enjoying something good to eat! (And then run it off later...)

P.S. It is wrong of me to celebrate Hobbit Day without a mention of another recent holiday: International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which just occurred on September 19th. Too bad I can't make any connection to running with that one. Anyway, happy Hobbit Day. Let's eat!