I've never wanted to use a book to beat it's author until now. Michael Connelly, a Boston-area bank executive ran the Boston Marathon and wrote a book about his experience. You may ask what's wrong with that? I'll tell you. First, and foremost, he cheated. There are two acceptable ways to run the Boston Marathon. The first is to qualify for the race by running another marathon fast enough and then entering a lottery of qualifiers. The second is to sign up as a charity runner and raise a boatload of money for a good cause. The author did neither of these things. He ran as a "Bandit". It means he was not wearing an official bib number and thereby was not entitled to cross the finish line, nor to receive a medal. Somehow, he managed to do both.

When I picked up this book I thought I was going to be reading an inspiring account of a man who overcame a life long heart condition (via cardiac ablation), qualified/raised a ton of money and got to run his hometown marathon. That was not to be. From the moment I realized he ran as a bandit I lost all respect for him. He didn't have to put in the blood, sweat and tears required to run a qualifying time at another marathon (www.baa.org if you want to see how fast someone has to run to qualify). He didn't even raise or donate money to a good cause. He cheated.

I may be extremely biased against the author because of my own background. I am a runner. I've run a marathon and and I know that Boston is the Holy Grail of marathons to mere mortals. I suppose if someone wanted an account of his whining that the water at the aid stations was warm (um, you didn't pay for that water), that the course was hard (duh), or that he never knew that a $0.50 medal could make someone feel so good (he didn't DESERVE a medal), go ahead and read this book. If you want to be inspired by true greatness, find another book! ( )

It was an interesting book, especially the parts that covered the portion of the race route that I run quite frequently.

The only things that really annoyed me about the book were the lack of good proofreading (there were lots of unnecessary and incorrect commas placed here and there) and readability issues caused by having lots of sidebars and italic text throughout the book. I was also annoyed that the author frequently referred to my road (a portion of the course) as Chestnut Hill Street. It's an Avenue! ( )