Runners in Malaysia are swapping their usual routes through parks and city streets for laps around shopping malls, commandeering air-conditioned corridors to keep up their training as a stubborn blanket of haze makes exercising outdoors increasingly hazardous.
The switch comes as smoke from forest and peatland fires continues to foul the air across parts of Southeast Asia, with Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding districts among the hardest-hit areas.
By 9am on Thursday, 15 of Malaysia’s 68 air quality monitoring stations were recording unhealthy pollution levels. Readings reached 163 in Negeri Sembilan, while parts of Kuala Lumpur and neighbouring Selangor remained above 150, according to data from the Department of Environment.
At Atria Shopping Gallery in Petaling Jaya, just outside Kuala Lumpur, dozens of runners spent Wednesday evening weaving through the mall’s upper-floor corridors, clocking up laps past shops and escalators in a workout that would ordinarily have taken place on the streets.