Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 2/6/2012

2/6/1982:
Julie Moss crawls to the finish line to finish second in the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii, which consists of 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and a full marathon. In the final running leg, Moss is eight minutes ahead of Kathleen McCartney with eight miles to go. A quarter-mile from the finish, however, Moss wobbles, collapses on the street, and sits staring at the pavement for a full three minutes, suffering from severe dehydration. She gets back up on her feet and crumbles again 100 yards from the finish line. Moss falls to the pavement twice more, 50 yards and 15 yards from victory. After McCartney passes her, Moss crawls to the finish 29 seconds behind the winner. Moss is a college student who entered the competition to gather research for her exercise psychology thesis.

Birthdays:
Babe Ruth b. 1895
Smoky Burgess b. 1927
Don Cockroft b. 1945
Richie Zisk b. 1949
Kim Zmeskal b. 1976

SHORT & SWEET

New Zealand novelist Janet Frame’s mental health was more famous than her writing (not many writers have canceled a lobotomy after receiving a literary award). This story collection shows the sweep of her graceful, wry stories, shot through with magical realism. Alice Sebold (The Lovely Bones) calls her “the master of nostalgia, beauty, and loss.”

PRIZES: THE SELECTED STORIES OF JANET FRAME, by Janet Frame (Counterpoint, 2009)