July 21st
1967 Jimmy Foxx baseball hall of famer died.
1984 James Fixx runner & author, dies at age 43 of a heart attack died.
1873 Jesse James, 1st train robbery
For one thing I thought it was strange that two people who died on July the 21st the only difference in their last name is the i and the o. Each had the unusual 2 x ending. And of course, they both started with F. Another strange thing was that all three are named James.
James Fixx was a running guru. He ran and looked at every aspect of running from every angle. He wrote two books on running and annually he put out a Runner’s Diary – which was a unique way to keep running tallies on days, weeks, months, and for the year. Each page represented a week of 7 days on one of the opened pages and the other either had a photograph of someone running or a short tale of inspiration. I bought his books and his Runner’s Diary and treated them sacredly and for a while I lived by his books, they were my Bible.
Then James Fixx suddenly died. He died on the side of the road while running. Heart failure.
Did he cover the part about some people die instantly while running because of putting too much stress on their hearts? I don’t remember reading anything about that.
What James Fixx left out of his books inspired me the most. I slowed down and decreased my running about 50%, then maybe 25%, and now I am lucky to run 2 or 3 miles a week.
Of course, we all know Jesse James.
