Caption: Riley McLincha starts with 30 year Crim veterans.
I survived the first Crim in 1977 with 575 others. With a noon start and temperatures and humidity in the 90s, it was one hell of a race. Kind of like Flint's version the Bataan Death March.

More than 700 entered and 20 percent did not finish. I'd guess half the 20 percent were M.I.A.s. That is, they did not cross the starting line let alone the finish line. Surely, 10 percent of the 700-plus had enough sense not to show up under those conditions.

After recovering from the first Crim, I fell back into a "no run" mode. Running just wasn't fun - not yet anyway. I still planned to run the second Crim, but I'd wait a while before training again ... like till next July.

I skipped the next six months and did not lose one heartbeat of aerobic fitness. How can that be? Not wanting to lose the cardiovascular gains I'd made that summer, I bought a jump rope. I skipped running and skipped rope.

At first it was as exhausting as climbing stairs. Probably because I had to jump high enough to ensure the rope would not snare my legs. Soon enough I became a more-proficient skipper and used less energy. Eventually, I needed only jump an inch off the floor. More speed now was needed to get the same heart rate as before.

By Christmas I felt I had mastered rope jumping. I could swing the rope every which way but loose and never miss a beat. But by February, I had become bored with the jump rope and it began hanging on wall more and more.

As fate would have it, that same month for my birthday I received a book that would change my life.

***

Jim Fixx's "The Complete Book of Running" was number one on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list at the time. By the time it left the list it had broken all sales records for nonfiction hardcover books. Pretty impressive for a running book. But today the major fact people remember about Jim Fixx is he died while running.

Running did not kill Fixx. His family, doctors and most others agree that it added years to his life. His son, John, said, "running added not only years to his life but life to his years."

According to Jim Fixx, his father, Calvin, had a heart attack at age 35 and, "until he died eight years later, he lived the life of an invalid."

Through his book, Fixx has added thousands of years to countless human lives. And I'm guessing to my life; both my parents died from heart disease.

Once I began reading "The Complete Book of Running," I could not put it down. When I finished it, I was hooked. I needed another Fixx.

I traveled to the nearest Herlich's drug store, searched and found it in the racks of magazines: Volume 13, No. 3, March 1978 Runner's World. I gave the pharmacist working the counter what he wanted, $1.50. I took the magazine home and devoured every word, including the masthead.

I was all revved up and ready to go. One thing stopped me: the white stuff that covered the ground outside. Fixx's book had a subchapter about coping with snow, but ... run in the winter! I thought that was crazy. I had never seen anyone run in the snow and I wasn't about to be the first. Spring was just around the corner; I could wait a week or two.

***

March 27, 1978 was the day I became a runner. I'd run many times before, but just went through the motions. Never did I think of myself as a runner, even during or after completing the first Crim seven months earlier. I also call myself a juggler, a musician, a writer, a pessimist and a jerk, but I can't give a specific date to when I became any of those things.

Why do I know the day I became a runner? It says so in my running log. I bought it while waiting for the snow to disappear. Coach Fixx told me in Chapter V, "Most runners keep a journal in which to record their running experiences."

I'm a firm believer in logs. They are handy measurement tools, even if all you record is distance, which is my main use for them today. When I began, I measured heart rate, weight, times and more.

Today I still record race information, who I ran with and new people I meet. When I browse my logs from 20-plus years ago, it's like looking at old photo albums.

Next year I will be starting my 30th log. I'm closing in on 28,000 miles. When I tell that to some people, they gasp - but it's a modest number, less than 20 miles a week. A high-mileage runner could reach my total in 10 years.

My very first log entry stated, "ran hard and got sore." That may be true, but to this day what I remember most about when I started running again was how much easier it was than the year before. I started enjoying my runs; I didn't get as winded and they no longer were a pain.

I hadn't run in six months, yet it felt easier? Aerobically, I was in better shape because, although I had skipped running, I'd skipped rope.

Jumping rope is not a good replacement for running while injured, mostly because the same muscles are used. But it can be a good cross- training tool to improve your aerobic level, as it was for me. And a rope is much cheaper than a stairclimber or membership to fitness center, where other aerobic equipment can be found.

Seldom does anyone take advice from me, but if you happen to bite, take this: Don't let people see you while you are learning. Until you learn skipping technique, you will look ridiculous and people will snicker at you. Not that I'd ever let that stop me. MR