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The Tuesday Night Walkers (who also walk Thursday nights and Saturday mornings, but the name stuck) A neighborhood walking club  •  Maplewood Park and thereabouts  •  Since May 1997

Hi, and welcome! I'm Barb, and I keep the mileage log and, as of this summer, the web page. The Tuesday Night Walkers are about fifteen neighbors (the number floats a little; we're up to 17 on a nice night and down to 4 in February) who walk together three times a week. We started in the spring of 1997 with three of us and a dog. Now we have the fifteen, four dogs, one stroller, and a running total of miles that surprised all of us when I added it up. We are not a race team. Nobody times anybody. We walk, we talk, we solve the problems of the neighborhood and occasionally the world, and we're home in time for the news. If you live anywhere near Maplewood Park, you are welcome, and you don't have to be fast, thin, young, or any of that. You just have to show up at the corner. On this page: When & Where  |  Our Routes  |  The 1999 Mileage Log  |  The Harvest 5K (Sept. 18)  |  Tips for Beginners  |  How to Join

When & Where

Day Time Usual route Tuesday 6:30 p.m. (6:00 once the clocks change in October, so we're not in the dark) The Park Loop, twice, or the Reservoir Loop Thursday 6:30 p.m. (same as above) The Reservoir Loop Saturday 8:00 a.m. sharp, coffee after The Big Loop, and sometimes the Hill for the brave We meet at the corner of Maple and Third, by the park entrance with the stone pillars. Look for a bunch of people in windbreakers stretching against the pillars. We leave five minutes after the start time, whoever is there. If you're late, you'll catch us on the loop; we're not hard to spot. Weather: we walk in light rain (bring a hat) and cold (bring gloves). We do not walk in lightning, ice, or when the sidewalks haven't been plowed. If it's iffy, call the phone tree or just look out your window at 6:25; if you see us, come out.

Our Routes

One of the husbands measured all of these with the car odometer and then re-measured them with a wheel from the highway department where he works, so they're as accurate as we can make them. All of them start and end at the corner of Maple and Third. The Park Loop, 1.2 miles. Once around Maplewood Park on the paved path, past the duck pond, the bandshell and the playground, and back to the pillars. Flat, lit until 10 p.m., benches every couple hundred yards. This is the beginner loop and the bad-weather loop. Twice around is 2.4 miles and takes most of us about 45 minutes. The Reservoir Loop, 2.5 miles. Out the back gate of the park, up Orchard Street, around the old reservoir on the gravel path (about a mile of the loop; wear shoes you don't mind getting dusty), and back down Elm to the corner. One gentle hill on Orchard. Pretty at sunset, which is why it's the weeknight route. Takes about 50 minutes at our pace. The Big Loop, 3.1 miles. Our Saturday route, and exactly a 5K, which is not an accident. Park Loop, then out the back gate, the whole Reservoir Loop, then instead of coming straight down Elm we go over to the high school and around the track once (a quarter mile, flat, good for stretching the legs at the end) and back along Third. About an hour and ten minutes with the coffee stop at the end at the doughnut shop on Third, where they know us and have the big table ready. The Hill, 3.8 miles. The Big Loop, but from the reservoir you go up Ridge Road to the water tower and back down before rejoining. Steep for about a third of a mile each way. Optional, and honestly about half of us skip it. The view from the water tower is worth it once. The Quickie, 0.8 miles. Down Third to the library and back. For nights when it's pouring and two of us show up anyway. It still counts in the log.

The 1999 Mileage Log updated Saturday, September 25, 1999

How the log works: after every walk I write down the route and who walked it, and each person's miles go in the book. The group total is everybody's miles added together. It's a big number. It's supposed to be a big number; that's the fun of it. Month Walks Avg. walkers Group miles January 9 5 86 February 8 4 61 March 13 8 218 April 13 11 324 May 13 13 401 June 13 14 437 July 13 12 372 August 13 13 409 September (through the 25th) 11 15 396 1999 total so far 106 2,704 miles Two thousand seven hundred and four miles. As one of the husbands pointed out, that's from here to Los Angeles, with a few hundred miles to spare for sightseeing. Our goal for the year is 3,500, which we'll make if the weather holds through November and the new folks keep coming. (Last year's total was 2,310, so we're already ahead.) Individual milestones this month: two members crossed 300 miles for the year, and one of our founding three walked her 1,000th mile with the group since we started in 1997. We had cake. At the doughnut shop. They didn't mind. Most walks attended in 1999: 98 out of 106, by a retired gentleman who has missed only for a wedding and a bout of the flu. He would like it known that he did the Hill on 9 of those.

The Harvest 5K for the Food Pantry, September 18 Every September we walk the town's Harvest 5K as a group and collect pledges for the community food pantry. This year was our third, and it was our best. The short version: on Saturday morning, September 18, twelve of us walked the 5K course (it starts at the fairgrounds and finishes at the bandshell in our own park, so we knew every step of the last mile), in matching green T-shirts that one of our members had made up at the sign shop. Every one of us finished. Our fastest walker came in at 41 minutes and change and our slowest, who was pushing the stroller, at just under an hour, and we waited at the finish and cheered her in. It was 58 degrees and sunny, which is walking weather if there ever was such a thing. The money: between the pledge sheets we passed around the neighborhood in August and a jar at the doughnut shop, the Tuesday Night Walkers raised $1,340 for the food pantry. That's up from $860 last year. We handed the check to the pantry director on Tuesday night before the walk, and she told us that goes a long way at the prices they pay through the food bank. Thank you to everybody who pledged, especially the neighbors on Elm who pledged by the mile and then found out how many miles we walk. Next year we'd like to get all fifteen (or more) of us on the course, and we'd like to beat $1,500. Save the third Saturday of September 2000.

Tips for Beginners

None of us are experts. This is just what we've all figured out the hard way in two and a half years, and what we tell every new person at the corner. Get good shoes. This is the only thing on the list that costs money, and it's worth it. Go to a real shoe store (the running store on the highway is where most of us go), tell them you walk, and let them fit you. Walking shoes or running shoes are both fine; your old tennis shoes from 1992 are not. Replace them when the tread wears down or your feet start telling you to, which for us is about every 500 miles or so. Start with 15 minutes. If you haven't been walking, don't start with the Reservoir Loop. Do the Park Loop once, at a comfortable pace, and go home. Do that for a week or two. Then twice around. Then come on Thursday. Nobody has ever been made fun of for turning back at the pillars, and several of our best walkers started exactly that way. Stretch after, not before. Cold muscles don't like to be stretched. Walk the first few minutes slowly to warm up, then stretch your calves, hamstrings and hips when you get back to the corner, while you're still warm. We all do it against the stone pillars, which is why we look so funny to the people driving by. Walk at a pace where you can talk but not sing. That's the whole rule. If you can't talk, slow down. If you could sing, pick it up a little. Dress in layers. You'll be cold for the first five minutes and warm for the rest. A jacket you can tie around your waist. In summer, a hat and a bottle of water. Be seen. Once the evenings get dark, wear something light-colored or with a reflective stripe. A couple of us carry little flashlights. Cars on Orchard Street can't see a dark windbreaker. Bring the dog, on a leash, if the dog is friendly. Bring the baby in the stroller. Bring your teenager if you can get them to come. Bring a neighbor. If you're just starting out, or you've had any trouble with your heart, your joints, or anything else, check with your doctor first. That's not us being fussy; it's just good sense, and it's what our doctors told us. Keep coming. The first two weeks are the hard part. After that, you'll miss it if you skip. That's how we got fifteen people.

How to Join Just show up at the corner of Maple and Third. Tuesday or Thursday at 6:30, or Saturday at 8. That's it. There's no fee, no form, no membership card. Say hi to whoever's stretching on the pillars, tell us your name, and walk with us. If you'd like to be on the phone tree for weather cancellations, tell me and I'll write you down. If you'd rather e-mail first so you know what to expect, that's fine too; I'll answer within a day or so. Bring a friend. Bring two. The corner has room.

Other pages we like: Riverbend Yoga & Stretch (two of our members go on Wednesdays and say it helps the after-walk stretch)  •  Grandma Jo's Home Remedies (and Common Sense) (she'd fit right in on a Saturday)  •  Dayhikes with Dad (for when a loop around the park isn't enough)  •  Bright Ideas Sign & Banner (they did our 5K shirts and the banner at the finish)  •  More in the Hot Springs neighborhood

Questions? E-mail Barb at [email protected] You are visitor number Last updated Saturday, September 25, 1999 (September miles and the 5K report added). © 1999 The Tuesday Night Walkers. The mileage log is updated most Saturdays after coffee.