Jim Fixx published
The Complete Book of Running in 1977. During his relatively short life, he had run 20
marathons. Fixx died on July 20,
1984 shortly after starting a jog near the Hardwick,
Vermont area (apparently one of his favorite places to run).
Hardwick residents, starved for anything approaching an historical attraction, erected a
monument fifty feet north of the Village Motel on
US 15 where a passing
motorcyclist found Fixx's lifeless body.
As a small correction to the poster above, Fixx did consult a doctor. Two days before his run his doctor pronounced him healthy, with a good
HDL/
LDL ratio and 11%
body fat. However, he was scheduled later that week for a
treadmill exam which would have detected advanced stages of
arteriosclerosis. Fixx's
autopsy showed he had suffered three
heart attacks within weeks of his death and three of his
coronary arteries had between 70% and 99% blockage.
While some like to point out the
irony of his death or float it as a
canard that when yer number is up it's up so stuff another
cheese steak in your mouth and don't fuss none, Fixx actually died of a genetic
heart condition, a condition which his father died of at the age of 43. Some might argue that Fixx's running bought him an extra decade of life