"I've Got to Keep Trying"

A Catoctin mountain brought Jimmy to his knees

It is the kind of scene that happens every weekend all over the country, but this one is by now part of presidential history--the middle-aged runner with the yellow headband and the number 39 on his T shirt nearing the top of a long hill in Catoctin Mountain National Park, then beginning to moan and falter. "I've got to keep trying," gasped Jimmy Carter, now sweating heavily. "If I can just make the top, I've got it made."

Seconds later, an ashen-faced Carter felt his legs go rubbery and just as he began to fall a Secret Service agent grabbed him. Some aides feared he had suffered a heart attack; the White House and National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski were immediately alerted, and there was talk of evacuating the President to a hospital. But White House Physician Dr. William Lukash diagnosed heat exhaustion. The President was taken back to his bedroom at Camp David, stripped, covered with cold towels, and injected with nearly a quart of salt water through a vein in his left arm. Lukash quickly ran an electrocardiogram on Carter; the results showed no heart damage. After about an hour, the President was up and slowly walking around the room. Some 90 minutes after the collapse, Carter stood at the finish line of the 10-km (6.2-mile) race, handing out trophies to the winners.

"They had to drag me off," he joked. "I didn't want to stop."

Despite Carter's lighthearted remark and stouthearted recovery, and despite Lukash's assertion after a complete medical examination that Carter seemed "perfectly normal," the incident raised questions about the President's exercise program and general wellbeing. Although more than 10% of American adults say they run or jog regularly, doctors have been cautious about proclaiming that running assures a healthier life. As exercise becomes more popular, it appears running may actually bring on heart attacks among a few people, particularly those who have not trained sufficiently.

On the very week of the Carter race, a team of Stanford doctors released a study of 18 joggers who died during or just after exercise. The doctors concluded that superior fitness and extensive training do not guarantee protection against such deaths.

Though Carter admitted last year that he had "never been a really good athlete," he has proved to be a very conscientious exerciser and one of the most versatile sportsmen ever to serve as Chief Executive. He enjoys activities ranging from bowling and swimming (he can execute an impressive one-and-a-half flip off the diving board at the Camp David pool) to fly-fishing and quail hunting. During his first 20 months in the White House, Carter tended to get most of his exercise through tennis, playing at least five times a week and teaching Rosalynn to play. He took up jogging a year ago, when he held the Middle East summit at Camp David and discovered he had no time for tennis. Says Lukash: "In his usual fashion, he went at it intensely."

Carter, who had been a member of the U.S. Naval Academy's cross-country team 36 years ago, devised his own jogging program, with the help of books like James Fixx's The Complete Book of Running. He started out with one-to two-mile runs around the White House driveway on weekdays, and logged longer distances on his Camp David weekends. Like many novice runners, Carter soon became addicted. Said he: "I start looking forward to it almost from the moment I get up. If I don't run, I don't feel exactly right." By early summer, Carter was averaging 40 to 50 miles a week, and with typical intensity and stubbornness, he kept trying to better his time. At first, he averaged 8 1/2 min. per mile, but he now regularly finishes the distance in 7 min. Occasionally, he turns in a 6 1/2-min. mile, an excellent time for a self-proclaimed "senior citizen" who will be 55 this week.

Watching closely over Carter's regimen is Rear Admiral Lukash, 48, an ascetic-looking, genial Navy doctor. A graduate of the University of Michigan Medical School, Lukash has been on the White House medical staff since 1967, when he began helping to care for Lyndon Johnson. Gerald Ford promoted him to White House physician in 1974 and Carter decided to keep him in the post, which involves tending not only the First Family but the 1,300 members of the White House staff.

Lukash, who was running* at Carter's side when he collapsed, is rarely more than a few yards away from his most important patient during the working day.

He often sees the President as early as 6:30 a.m., when Carter pokes his head into the doctor's East Wing office to wish him good morning. If Carter is already working at that hour, Lukash will look in on him later in the day, just for a quick check of how he is feeling. "I'm not a medical albatross," says Lukash. "He sees so much of me that I try to blend in." He gives the President a complete physical annually, and does not believe more frequent ones are needed. "He's had no risk factors," explains Lukash. "He doesn't smoke. No diabetes, no hypertension, no heart disease, no lung problems."

Despite his job, Carter's blood pressure is a steady 110-115/70. Says Lukash: "He is in excellent health. I wish I could take credit for it."

Lukash readily concedes that Carter looks considerably different from the candidate of three years ago. The job has visibly aged the man--which is no surprise; it aged his predecessors. Carter's hair is grayer, his face much more lined. His jogging has also caused alterations. Before he started, he carried 158 lbs. on his 5-ft. 9 1/2-in. frame; today he weighs 148 Ibs., a drop that has required him to send his suits out for refitting. Carter now regularly uses a sunscreen lotion to protect his fair complexion. This often leaves his face looking splotchy, says Lukash.

Lukash also believes Carter is bearing the emotional strains of his office well. Says he: "I've never seen him manifesting overt stress. Obviously, he gets concerned about his brother Billy or by Chip's divorce. But he's not in any way weakened under the pressure of decision making. He's philosophical about the pressures and feels he is doing the best he can."

Nevertheless, the doctor does not dismiss specualtion that the most recent set of worries--dismal ratings in the polls, Soviet troops in Cuba, allegations of cocaine use by Hamilton Jordan, the challenge of Senator Edward Kennedy for his party's presidential nomination--might have undermined Carter's strength and played some part in his Catoctin fallout. More significant, however, was the fact that the President was doggedly attempting to improve his time; he was trying to cut a full four minutes off his best previous time on the punishing Catoctin course, from 50 minutes to 46. Many runners would consider such substantial improvement under competitive conditions a fool's errand.

Admitted Lukash: "This time he was probably trying to do too much.''

* An avid jogger himself, Lukash has been running for 3 1/2 years.

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