Run Dick, Run Jane

Jogging has become a popular national pastime for many who love to run and even for a few who don’t. Run Dick, Run Jane is a film produced by Brigham Young University that may convince you that jogging is not only fun and inexpensive, but it could also save your life.

As the film points out, whether or not you like the idea of running, it seems to be a proven medical fact that a good program of exercise, including jogging, can help you live longer. The main causes of heart disease today are physical inactivity and the problems of great anxiety or excitement that cause a sudden outpouring of adrenaline that will over-stimulate the heart. The film makes it clear that a good program of exercise might help you through the problem of sudden excitement because you will have a stronger, more efficient heart. Your heart will pump more blood with each stroke, causing fewer total beats each day. A regular jogger can save up to 43,000 heartbeats every day.

In a special program of walking and running for men 45 to 55, it was shown that their resting heartbeat decreased, on the average, twenty beats per minute. A study done in London showed that there have been twice as many heart attacks among bus drivers as among bus conductors. About the same statistics were found to be true when comparing sedentary postal clerks with letter carriers. Jogging seems to take on a new aspect of importance in light of such statistics.

The film asks the questions, Are you physically fit? And just what does being physically fit really mean? Fitness is actually a condition of your body, mainly your heart, blood vessels, and lungs. You can perhaps judge your own physical fitness by taking this little test suggested by the film. If you are less than 30 years old and can run 1 1/2 miles in 12 minutes, you are probably in good physical condition. If you can run 1 3/4 miles in 12 minutes, you are in excellent physical condition.

Jogging not only works wonders on the physical self but can be a great aid to the mental self also. The film tells a story of a New York journalist who, after a number of heart attacks and other personal problems, decided to kill himself. He went out and began running and thought that he would be dead in just a short time and that nobody would really know he had committed suicide. He ran and ran to the point of exhaustion, but he was unsuccessful at doing himself in. He tried again and again but to no avail. The only thing he seemed to be accomplishing was that he could run faster and farther each day. After doing this for a few days, his spirits so improved that he decided to go on living—and running.

This man was probably very lucky that he did not kill himself. Before a person begins a jogging program, he should have a complete physical examination. A person should begin slowly at first, working up to the program of good vigorous exercise that will be best for him.

Can jogging help you live a longer, more productive life? See the film and find out about Larry Lewis, a San Francisco waiter who has been jogging for 94 years. Larry jogs six miles every day around Golden Gate Park. See Larry run. Larry is 103.

Illustrated by Dale Kilbourn

Larry Lewis has been jogging for 94 years. He’s 103.

A depressed New York journalist with heart problems decided to run himself to death. His attempt failed. He felt so much better after a few weeks of running that he decided to go on living.