A Certain Fixxation

YOU MAY have read Games for the Superintelligent. You probably have seen him on one of those American Express "You don't recognize me, but you will when you see my name" commercials. Whatever your previous acquaintance with James F. "Jim" Fixx, you know he is America's best-known preacher of the gospel of running. He has presented the swelling ranks of runners with a sequel to The Complete Book of Running (which, he acknowledges in the foreword to Jim Fixx's Second Book of Running, may have been titled a touch presumptuously).

His brisk, crisp prose conveys a simple message" running is a growing sport, a great sport, and I'll tell you why you should run and how to run intelligently.

But sometimes Fixx gets slightly carried away. For instance, in listing motivational techniques, he cites one suggestion proffered by Massachusetts psychologist Dr. Albert J. Kearney:

At the beginning of each week the reluctant exerciser write a number of checks, payable to organizations he can't stand. Kearney suggests the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party and the like.

A friend holding the check then tears them up if the runner completes "Segments of the appointed mileage," or mails them if the runner fails. And all in the name of running.

Consider one of Fixx's. explanations for the transformation of running into a phenomenon "the likes of which the world had never witnessed":

...American involvement in the Vietnamese war ended, and much of the country, weary of its troubled preoccupation with external matters, turned with relief to thoughts of itself and means of self-betterment. That there was an unabashedly narcissistic strain behind the shift in no way diminished its relevance to the running movement.

Indeed. The running boom hit home about ten years after the war did, and its growth pattern parallels the rise of our Me generation. Running is intensely personal, owing, among other things, to what Yale psychiatrist Dr. Victor A. Alshul terms "its contentless character." Several journalistic punsits have poked fun at the sport, underscoring its intrinsic self-centered traits. And perhaps it is a damning comment that running has only become a "phenomenon" as we have become more preoccupied with ourselves.

But Fixx does not address this. Running is good for you, so run, he simply says; he balances his occasionally disarming enthusiasm with precautions. Don't be fooled by the title--this really is not a book. It is part sales catalogue, part magazine, part travel guide, part medical journal, and part training manual.

Which is not to say most will not find something useful or valuable. It includes, for example, caloric counts for popular junk food items (A Whopper has 606 compared to a Big Mac's 557); a broad bibliography; a profile of wunderkind Bill Rodgers; a re-evaluation of the specious but spiritually uplifting legend of Pheidippiedes; a thourough survey of running equipment, apparel, and periodicals; and up to the minute status reports on the latest pertinent medical studies.

So buy this "book." Show it to your flabby friends, convince them there is still hope with a modicum of dedication. Train for the Boston Marathon by loping alongside the Charles. Don't motivate yourself by writing checks payable to the red.