Coincidence allowed me to write a single book which combined two of my hobbies. On Easter Day, 2002, I sang Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and the next day I ran the Boston Marathon..... twenty-seven hours of delicious musical and physical  exertion. 

    

The St. Matthew Passion is an operatic re-telling (without costumes and stage directions) of the familiar Good Friday story of Christ’s last supper with his disciples, the walk in Gethsemane, his betrayal by Judas and denial by Peter, his deliverance to Pilate’s judgment, his abandonment by the crowd, his scourging, crucifixion, death and burial. 

 

The marathon I was training for that spring was 'Boston,'  the most celebrated road race in the world, a Mecca for most distance runners. With its famous Heartbreak Hill,  and characters like Clarence DeMar, (who won a record seven Bostons)  the famous Johnny Kelly and Bill Rogers, the infamous Rosie Ruiz, and the requirement to qualify in a certain time, the race has a pilgrimage quality for runners.  

 

With this book I  "hit for the cycle."  In baseball terms, that means getting a single, a double, a triple, and a home run in one game.  In my life I had already written books about three of my other hobbies, fishing, beekeeping, and home brewing. This book would cover the last two.    

 

My friend Ed Koren produced a wonderful cover for the book, featuring me looking like one of his hairy humanoids running the race with musical notes floating all around.