Chilly Chili Mile promotes heart health, winter activity

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Getting outside and active in January in Ohio can be hard. However, this year, the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany will help the community get out of bed and get walking in the winter.

On Feb. 12, 200 walkers will participate in the inaugural Chilly Chili Mile. The two-lap, one-mile-long walk held on the grounds of the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany will feature food – mainly chili, of course – fun, and a little bit of winter activity.

Why in winter? Why not, says Phil Heit, founder of Healthy New Albany and the New Albany Walking Classic.

“There aren’t that many races in the winter,” says Heit. “We want to promote heart health and we want to promote walking, and we thought it would be a novel approach to just have some fun in the winter.”

As a race, the Chilly Chili Mile will reward the top finishers: The top three men and top three women will win gift certificates from Second Sole, an Ohio-based athletic apparel company. But getting out and active in the winter is no easy feat, so no matter whether walkers come in first or last, each finisher will receive a race chili bowl and fresh chili from the official “chili sponsor,” Gourmet Farm Girl, a New Albany Farmers Market vendor based in Bucyrus.

“It’s just a very unique event, and the fact that the distance is only a mile will be attractive to a large number of people,” says Heit. “They can come inside the center and socialize and have chili.”

The walk will begin at the Heit Center entrance, and after participants finish the one-mile walk, they are invited to warm up in the center and enjoy Gourmet Farm Girl chili and food from Kroger. Heit is also working with Exercise is Medicine, a global health initiative managed by the American College of Sports Medicine, for the Chilly Chili Mile. Timeless Skin Solutions, a physician-directed skin care practice that has just opened its New Albany office, is the presenting partner.

As the residents of New Albany have come to expect of Heit and Healthy New Albany, this is only the start for the Chilly Chili Mile, and all can anticipate the event’s growth. Although as few as 200 registrants will be accepted for the first walk, Heit hopes to grow registration and sponsors for next year’s Chilly Chili Mile.

“I want to see how this year goes, and what the reception is,” says Heit. “If it’s good, then we can really make it into something bigger.”

Amanda DePerro is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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