Put Your Best Foot Forward

Who remembers James Fixx these days? At the end of the 1970s, the man was a celebrity, a star, because he started a mass movement. His book, The Complete Book of Running, made the United States into a nation of joggers, and it made him a rich man. His exercise bible stayed at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for months. The wave spilled over into other countries and no later than November 1978, when Der Spiegel magazine devoted its cover story to the trendy new sport, did Germany discover the pull of running as well. People—infected with a desire to run—ran in fields, woods and meadows, on paths along rivers, on sidewalks, and if there weren’t any, in the street.