The other week I got bored of my regular running route along Highway 487 and took to Google to see if there were any fun trails near my house. The internet showed me the Town of Walnut Grove had taken it upon itself to create a fitness trail next to public library.
Now, I am somewhat skeptical of fitness trails. Sometimes, they’re great, but mostly they’re tightly coiled short loops that force me into a constant curve, killing my knees before I’m halfway through my run. However, I decided to throw caution to the wind and check it out.
While the fitness trail was about what I expected, Walnut Grove had also provided a handy backup option, a 1-mile recreational path traced out by a thick line of blue paint along the roads. I went around three times, marveling at the ingenuity of that blue paint.
While I don’t care for fitness trails, there’s a good reason why they’re are usually skinny, short, curvy paths. Asphalt is expensive! It may not look like it but slapping down a single lane – about 12 feet wide – of blacktop can cost almost $40,000! That’s just for the material. Building a separate road for exercise would be economically insane, about $1.5 million per mile.
But that blue line, that beautiful blue line, that was the real treat to find. A few weeks ago, the CDC released a report showing Mississippi was one of the five states where obesity rates were above 37 percent. That’s not good. High rates of obesity can put a huge strain on communities, as well as on the organs of the overweight people. A community needs assessment released by Laird Hospital in November 2016 stated obesity costs approximately $150 billion each year to treat in the United States. The report describes obesity as the “greatest threat to the health Mississippians.”
Yet, in a time where Mississippi’s towns, of all sizes, are struggling to keep even their basic infrastructure working, the small community of Walnut Grove definitely deserves a shout-out for the out-of-the-box thinking to help residents stay healthy.
I don’t know what road paint costs, but I’m guessing it’s less than asphalt. I’ve got to give the Walnut Grove and East Central Community College officials, which also has a fitness trail, credit for finding such a simple, yet effective solution to provide a path for residents to get out and exercise. I hope other communities across our state will show the same drive to create exercise opportunities for their own residents.
Thomas Howard is the managing editor of The Newton County Appeal. You can contact him at thoward@newtoncountyappeal.com.
