Mall Madness

No, I'm not talking about the Christmas shopping season nor any other multi-store sales going on under one roof.
I'm talking about the activity before all the activity.
It usually starts well before 8 o'clock in the morning Monday through Thursday at the Clearview Mall, on Route 8 just north of Butler, Pennsylvania; my main base of operations.
First the backstory.  At my most recent checkup last year, my doctor told me that he wanted to see ten pounds less of me by the time we met again.
Growing up, I've always been a skinny kid.  Even at 6'3", I barely tipped the scales at 150 pounds by my high school graduation.
Over the years, the metabolism slowed down, and eating whatever I wanted became supplanted by eating healthy, especially after my then-44-year-old boss from my last radio job suffered two heart attacks more than seven years ago.  One after the other.
He was lucky and has since made better choices with his second chance at life.
Back then, I wasn't worried.  That was 2004.  I wasn't married, childless, and had no real serious prospects at the time. 
Then the following year I met the woman I would marry a year later, followed by the birth of our daughter almost three years after our wedding.
I've got a lot more to live for now.  Plus my wife says I'm not allowed to die.
And my wife means what she says.
Between work, and trying to give time to my family as well, who has the time to exercise?  What to do, what to do.
After taking my daughter to daycare, I have about an hour before I have to go into work that's my time alone. 
I decided to start walking.  There's a roadway in the industrial park next to the radio station where I work.  I discarded this idea after contracting an upper respiratory infection in the cold days of November of last year.
So, after some thinking, I revisited the idea of walking again.
But this time in a more climate-controlled environment, because I didn't want to get sick again, have to go to the doctor, and then be chastised over my weight.
Why not the mall?  I had eschewed the idea as lame and for old people.  But then I thought, why not give them a run for the money?  Pun intended.
I have a Nike pedometer app on my iPhone.  That, with about 1100 songs on my iTunes, my headphones and some good shoes, and I'm in business.
So four days a week, I walk about 3 1/2 miles on average, Monday through Friday, burning anywhere from 500 to 575 calories each time. 
Burn 2,000 extra calories per week?  Sure, I can do this!
And I walk circles around them.
Most of the mallwalkers do so as a social means, as opposed to fitness, and usually walk together with friends.  I'm the only one who walks alone. 
I stand out with my iPhone and headphones, brisk arm-swinging pace, and I hear the whispers as I pass each one:
"What's that thing he's holding"
"I can't keep up with that guy"
"He's new"
"You can tell he's serious about it"
Yes, I am.
My wife gets up at 3:45 each morning to work out herself before she hits the shower and is off to work by 5:15. 
Last week on Martin Luther King Jr. day, a day off for her, she asked if she could join me up at the mall.
I told her "hope you can keep up".
And she did.

NEXT WEEK:  Getting it right...the first time