Jim Fixx

Jim Fixx changed my life, perhaps more than anyone did that I never met.  I will be forever grateful. 

At age 35, Jim was very overweight at 240 pounds (110 KG.) and smoked two packs of cigarettes per day.  He started running to lose weight and gain a healthier lifestyle.  In 1977, Jim published his fourth book, The Complete Book of Running.  (The previous  three were collections of puzzles).  It was number one on the best seller list for eleven straight weeks.  The book sold over a million copies, one of them to me.  By then, Jim had lost 60 pounds (27 KG.) and had given up smoking.  He extolled the health benefits of running and how he believed that it considerably increased an average person’s life expectancy.  Running also increased a runner’s self-esteem, helping them acquire a runner’s “high,” and worked to help them to better cope with stress.  Fixx is credited with helping to start America's fitness revolution and to popularize the sport of running.  The millions you see running on the streets of America today are there because of something Jim Fixx started.     

I bought my copy of Jim’s book with some reservations.  I had read how another author, James Michner, in his book, Sports in America, had taken up running to deal with his health problems, but that he personally hated it.  He found it boring.  However, I found it to be exhilarating.

Before I started running, I was 32 years-old and out of shape.  If I had to run for a bus, I would be completely out of breath before I arrived.  I followed Fixx’s directions for getting started and was amazed at how quickly it worked.  I discovered, as he said, that the human body is like a rubber band.  The more you stretch it, the more it expands.  In less than a week I was able to run a mile without stopping.  I continued running for ten years until I had to stop because of my bad knees. 

I used to run six days a week, rising during the week at 5 AM for a thirty minute run, winter, spring, summer and fall.  The weekends were for an hour.  I collected tee shirts as souvenirs from the 10K races I participated in.  I remember one time in Washington, I ran from my hotel near the Capital past the Lincoln Memorial into the Commonwealth of Virgina and back.  Another time, visiting my home town of Oswego, New York, I ran retracing my steps of walking from my grade school (Fitzhugh Park School) to my home (30 East Oneida Street) when I was a little boy.       

It’s been almost thirty years since I had to stop running, but I still miss doing it.  However, it got me into the exercise habit which I still maintain.  I think my running was also a good example for both of my children who grew up involved in physical activities (gymnastics, tennis, baseball, and basketball) and continued their regimen into adulthood.    

Sadly, Jim Fixx died of a heart attack at 52 years of age in July of 1984, ironically while running near his home in Vermont.  Besides his early history of being overweight and a smoker, Jim probably had a predisposition to heart disease.  His father died of a heart attack at 43 years of age.  Jim used to say that if you could run a marathon, you were immune to heart disease.  He ran many.  However, Jim underestimated the affect of diet on health and longevity.  He liked to eat donuts for breakfast.  I stopped that bad habit.