Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here is a New York Times story about athletic training. I've never had a running or a cycling coach. I won a medal in the 1998 Dallas White Rock Marathon (finishing in the top 3.7% overall) and have won many trophies and medals at various distances. I'm sure I could have done better at both sports had I been properly coached; but to me, half the fun of any activity is figuring things out for myself. By the way, I am not a natural athlete, like Lance Armstrong. I have always been skinny and gangly. I had asthma as a teenager, which prevented me from playing high-school baseball. I still suffer from pollen allergies. My left rib cage is deformed. I have big feet. My ninth-grade baseball coach, Jim Tate, used to yell, "Jackson, you look like you're running in quicksand!" during our practices. But I have a mind and a will. My resting heart rate yesterday morning was 47. That is a sign of a good cardiovascular system, which stems from years of cycling and running. I have no sympathy (none whatsoever) for obese people. The human body is not designed to be sedentary. If you never (or rarely) exert, you are throwing your life away, and isn't that about the dumbest thing you could do?