Jim Kurtz
Jim Kurtz spent the first 40 years of his life as a chubby non athlete and the remaining 43 as a dedicated, passionate runner. Inspired by Jim Fixx’s 1977 seminal book, The Complete Book of Running, he trained on his own and participated in local races at 5, 10 and 15K distances. After successes at those distances he added occasional half marathons, never winning at any distance, satisfied to be a middle of the pack competitor.
He loved to travel, and he loved to run, so of course he combined the two. He ran in Beijing just a month post 9/11. He ran from Paris to Versailles. He ran in Japan with his older son as his champion. He ran in Vancouver on the trip to meet younger son’s future wife. He ran wherever he vacationed, ahead of or at the end of a day of sightseeing. Without the benefit of GPS he always made it back to the starting point, eager to describe his discoveries.
According to the calendar Jim was an old guy when he was approached to join The San Diego Striders to fill out a vacant spot in the 80-85 category. According to the doctors he was as fit as someone 30 years younger. According to race results he had moved up from the middle of the pack to a podium spot. Always having been a solo participant, being chosen to be part of an elite team was hugely gratifying.
Jim was still out training up until two months before he died. He’d already signed up in the spring of 2021 to run in fall races when he was diagnosed that July with the cancer that took him in September. He was grateful he could be so active right up to when his cancer overwhelmed him. He was a wonderful man who lead an ordinary life with remarkable vigor and grace.