THE LAST TIME JOHN FIXX RAN 26-plus miles it was 1984. It wasn't a pretty sight. "When I finished I didn't know my own name," he says. "It was my last marathon; I decided I was doing ugly things to my body."
Next Monday, April 15, though, Fixx, 34, will join more than 37,000 men and women—and thousands of unofficial entrants—for the centennial running of the Boston Marathon. "Everyone who has anything to do with running is going to be in Boston," says Fixx, "and I simply didn't want to miss that." Besides, for Fixx, admissions director at the Westminster School in Simsbury, Conn., running the Boston Marathon is practically a genetic imperative, albeit one that carries a heavy emotional burden. His father, writer Jim Fixx, ran the grueling course eight times, but died in 1984 at age 52 of an undiagnosed coronary-artery blockage while out running. More important, Fixx the elder is the reason many people will be gasping up Heartbreak Hill rather than watching from the safety of their couches. His 1977 bestseller, The Complete Book of Running, helped launch America's running boom.
Son John, the only one of four Fixx children to take up running, is wary of the deadly legacy of the Fixx men (his grandfather died of a heart attack at 43), and, unlike his father, has been meticulous about regular coronary checkups. "Just as my father, through exercise, was a part of our lives longer than his father was able to be for his children," says Fixx, whose wife, Liza Meltzer, was formerly an administrator at the Westminster School, "so, too, would I like to be around for my children considerably longer than my father."
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