They say walking is good exercise. You know who they are. Those people who are all about avoiding pig out sessions on the couch and leading an active lifestyle.
Walking may not get the blood pumping like a five-minute mile or a bike ride up Lake View Drive near District 5 Road, but it’s all about putting in the time and energy. Unfortunately, this winter has made walking nearly impossible, unless you’ve been doing laps around your living room, which would get awful boring and be a little too close to that couch of yours. The amount of snow and ice, coupled with frigid temperatures, made going outside unfortunately the last thing on our list to do. It actually would have taken quite a bit of money to get us out on the streets over the last few months.
“It’s not easy to get outside, especially this winter,” said Leslie Glines-Jones, who walks the mall three to four times a week for 40 minutes at a time. “I don’t have a problem with the cold as long as the sidewalk is bare.”
That certainly hasn’t been the case recently.
Luckily, if you’re a semi early riser and happen to be a big fan of window shopping under warm conditions, Steeplegate Mall offers a safe haven for people looking to put in a few miles. Of course, you can walk around the mall at any time during normal business hours, too, but it can be tricky to get a workout in with kids running around and others stopping to get a glimpse at the latest fashion trends. Instead, the mall opens its main doors an hour early to allow for those who work a later shift or are lucky enough to be retired to do laps around the mall. Monday through Saturday, Steeplegate opens at 9 a.m. for walkers (and at 10 a.m. on Sunday.) The only days it doesn’t open early for walkers are when the mall is closed, like on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter.
“We do it pretty much year round,” Kay Kennedy said of her and her walking buddy, Pat Blay.
You won’t find everyone walking in a certain direction depending on the day like you might at one of those indoor track facilities – or really any walking protocol for that fact. The only thing you need to do is walk, because if not you’d just be in the way.
“Exercise is probably everyone’s rationale for being here,” Glines-Jones said.
Now you don’t technically have to stop exactly at 10 a.m. when the mall opens, you just might have to do a little more weaving to avoid any potential obstacles. And if you go there enough you’ll see some familiar faces passing by just about every morning.
“You say good morning to everybody,” Blay said.
Jim and Sandal Keeffe only recently started walking at the mall to help with Jim’s recovery from back surgery.
“This is the only thing he can do right now,” Sandal said. “And it’s something we knew we needed to do to benefit Jim’s health.”
From what we’ve been told, one lap around the place, keeping to the outside edge and using those super secret hallways, is about a half a mile. And in the course of an hour, depending on how fast you feel like moving those two legs of yours or how much gabbing you do, there’s plenty of time for multiple trips passing those well displayed store fronts. The Keeffe’s do four laps each morning.
“They tell me that’s two miles,” Jim said. “Seven days a week right now.”
The mall has been allowing walkers to stroll through its halls since Steeplegate opened in 1990 and is mall walker friendly year round. So whether it’s snow or heat you’re trying to escape, this is a good option for the daily workout.
“We’re going to measure around the outside and do that when it warms up,” Jim said.
