1. Defining Fitness and Health.
It was the summer of 1976, and I wanted to watch the Olympic
sprinters in Montreal. I was in a hospital bed with an undiagnosed ill-
ness that caused me to drop 60 pounds in less than a year. Now,
weighing only 97 pounds, I was barely able to reach the switch for the
TV and too weak to turn it on. The nurse came in to help me. While
watching the Olympic games, I remembered the days when I was a
national-class sprinter. And I wondered how my health could so rap-
idly deteriorate.
The road to full recovery from that illness was long, and required
that I learn more about how my body works. In a sense I’m still on
that road, continually and now intuitively assessing my food, nutri-
tion, physical activity and lifestyle in order to stay healthy. By tuning
in more closely to my body’s needs after my illness I began to see the
immediate benefits of improved health and also began to feel well for
the first time in several years. During this period I began going for a
walk every day. In April 1980, I found myself admiring the finishers
of the Boston Marathon, thinking that these runners must be really
healthy in order to run more than 26 miles. As I watched the
marathoners finish I developed a desire to test my own health. I had
been walking regularly for more than two years. The New York City
Marathon was six months away and that seemed like plenty of time
to train for it. After all, I mused, I ran in high school and in college.
It was a cool, overcast morning as I began my journey to the New
York City Marathon. The race started with a cannon blast so loud it
shook the Verrazano Bridge. The crowd of 18,000 runners began to
move and I was among them, ready to prove to myself that I really
was healthy. All went well through the first 10 miles. The excitement
swept me along at a slightly quicker pace than planned, yet I felt
great. As expected, by 15 miles I felt tired but was able to continue.