When did you first start running?
Way back when I was in high school. Late 60's early 70's I was a member of the track team. I was a miler.

Throughout high school?
Worried that they will get too tight.

Why did you start running?
Well, I was never very good at team sports. I was always the skinny, awkward, uncoordinated kid who wasn't good at contact sports. I didn't really have a natural talent or inclination in that direction. And suddenly it seemed to me that track and field, which is a much more solitary event, was perfect for me. Although, I didn't excel during my high school track career and I certainly didn't end up pursuing it in any way through my college years. It was a good athletic outlet for me. It was a good fit. I continued on my own sporadically as I reached adulthood.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media?
That's an interesting question. I wonder why I did that. I can't remember now. I probably did it because it was the only sport that I felt I could excel at. I was pathetically awful at just about everything else in physical education. But I felt I had this talent for running. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that I had a daily paper route as well that took me over a lot of very hilly terrain. I tried to out run big dogs. But there's something about it that appealed to me. The fact that I could do it well, I didn't have to relate to the jocks in my school to be able to do it and I was pretty much left to myself. I was definitely a nerd in high school and I did not belong to the cool set. Then and probably now most of the popular kids played the team sports like football. The track team was for skinny kids with glasses who did strange things like playing the cello in their spare time.

You're probably in better shape than those football players?
Most definitely. Most definitely. The big running boom occurred shortly after I left high school. It's a completely different scene now and I have to say as a lifetime runner, I'm 50 years old now, I just turned 50 in September, and I look around me and I see that I'm in far better shape than most of my contemporaries. It's really paid off. I still have the same energy I had when I was 25, my joints are in good shape, I still go up steps two at a time.

Did you eat pasta before each race?
A combination. Health reasons certainly are a big part of it. I like to stay in shape. I would like to stay healthy and active for as long as possible. I certainly don't entertain any delusions that I won't age and decay and fall into pieces like everybody else. But I would like to stay on top of my game for as long as possible because I am an active person. It also brings me a lot of contentment. I look forward to going running because it's a time when I can think slowly through things and all runners are familiar with the phenomenon of becoming semidetached while running at a certain point and achieving a very blissful mental state. I love that. And even as a 14 year old I knew that maybe without being aware of it consciously that there's a kind of transcendent happiness that it brings you.

In high school how fast were you running the mile?
Boy it was a million years ago. I think it was probably like five minutes eleven seconds. I was fourteen.

Was your team pretty large?
It was a pretty small team. There were probably no more than half a dozen kids.

What was your first marathon?
Just north of New York City. In the suburbs of Westchester County.

Was it a running community?
Nah. This was Westchester County in the 60's; it was more of a martini drinking county.

How often do you run now?
I do about 25 miles a week. It's usually like 4 or 5 runs a week for about 5 miles.

When did you start playing cello?
I started when I was 12 and I got into it seriously when I was 16--that's when I started with private lessons. There was an outstanding music department at my public high school and our string teacher introduced us to some great chamber music and although it was way over our heads technically, I fell in love with it to the extent that I couldn't imagine not having it in my life.

Did that teacher inspire you?
Inspired me, pushed me, challenged me.

Favorite running venue?
New York City's great for that. Because you've got Central Park on the one hand. And that offers a lot of track configurations. You can run the entire park drive loop, which is a 6.1-mile run. So you run three of those and you have a good marathon practice run. And you can take various shortcuts and cutoffs according to how tight your schedule is that day. Or according to your desire to add or subtract hills into your workout. At the very north end of the park in Harlem there's the biggest, longest, steepest hill that we all call 'Heartbreak Hill.' That's only for when you're feeling particularly spunky. I do Heartbreak Hill once a week or so. Of course there's a reservoir within Central Park and that has its own running track and that's 1.57 miles around circumference. It's like a menu of choices. It's nice. In the summer time when the weather gets hot and muggy here you can go down to either Riverside Park or down to the River Walk, which literally hugs the river shoreline. And you can get a nice westerly breeze to cool you off. Watch the boats go by.

Do you have an all-time favorite?
I couldn't say. It depends upon your mood. If I'm feeling like a really hard workout I'll do the full loop in Central Park, including all the hills. That would include about five hills that way. In the summer, if I really can't take the heat I'll go down and run along the river.

Do you like running on a treadmill?
As a matter of fact, these days with the weather so inclement in New York I have been using my NordicTrack. That's one of the original NordicTracks. I bought it in 1982 and it's held up perfectly. I've had to replace one part in 23 years. It's the old kind with the oak frame. It's a good workout to just move the thing from one room to another. I use that when it's icy outside and I don't feel like risking an ankle or something like that.

Besides running and the NordicTrack how else do you workout?
I used to have a gym membership and I let it lapse because I thought I wasn't going enough. At home I have a chinning bar and I use that plus push-ups for upper body strength. And I do a lot of sit-ups after a workout. Just real simple stuff like that. You certainly couldn't call it body building, but it keeps me toned. Playing the cello doesn't take a lot of strength. It's all about subtle balance. In a sense it's more like being a surgeon I think. In a sense weight lifting is a little bit dangerous for musicians.

Worried that they will get too tight?
Yeah, exactly.

What was your first marathon?
I've done one. I did the New York City marathon in '02. And I'm planning on doing it again this year.

What made you run the marathon?
I went with my family to watch the runners go by at the edge of Central Park because we had a friend running. We went to cheer her on. And what I saw was so inspiring I turned to my wife and said "I'm going to do this next year." That was it. I saw these people going by who had done this incredible thing. Ordinary people like me. I thought "I could do this too."

Was it hard to train for?
That's a funny story. I applied on the New York Road Runner's website and I did not make the computer lottery. I was rejected. And I thought "oh well I'll try again next year." And at the very end of September I got an e-mail from the Road Runner's Club telling me they had such a precipitous drop off in the number of overseas applicants because of 9/11 that they were inviting me back in, so to speak. So I said great and I wrote back and I accepted. The only problem was that the New York Philharmonic, of which I am the principal cellist, was about to leave for a nearly month long tour of Asia. And at the end of September, I had what...about 5 weeks in which to train. So I did all my training on the road in places like Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Manila. It was very unusual, to say the least. My training was pretty haphazard and not at all thorough. I already was maintaining a basic level of fitness, so I knew at least I could finish the race. It wasn't a big leap to try to get ready for the marathon. Although, this next time I'll do it a little differently, I'll certainly start considerably farther in advance.

Was preparing for the marathon on your mind at the end of your tour to Asia?
Oh, yeah. Definitely it was. I didn't know what to expect. It was like preparing for the birth of our first child. It's this event you can read about in as much detail as you want but you haven't gone through it personally, so all the descriptions and all that you've read about have a sort of abstract quality.

Did you perform the night before you ran the marathon or the night after?
The marathon was on Sunday the 3rd, and I had a Philharmonic rehearsal 10 o'clock Tuesday the 5th and we had just returned from Southeast Asia on October 30th, so I ran that marathon totally jet-lagged. I was so jet-lagged. I had gotten so little sleep and I think that as much as any lack of training contributed to my melt down after mile 15.

Whats the hardest part of running?
Just the walking part. Fortunately, when I work, I sit down. But I remember taking a week off from running.

When the Philharmonic travels do you run in foreign cities?
Oh yes. All the time. Quite a few of us do. All the runners in the orchestra know each other and sometimes we arrange to go out in pairs or in groups. Or otherwise we'll see each other in the hotel gym on the treadmills. There are a couple of runners in the horn section and the other member of the orchestra that ran the same marathon is the assistant principal clarinet. Another runner is the second oboist.

It's got to be a different experience running in a foreign city?
It feels more like a touristic experience. You'll always stop at the front desk and ask for a good route and you always take a map with you. It can be funny. I mentioned Kuala Lumpur. That's a place where you don't often see people dressed in shorts running through the streets. So we got a lot of looks. I've run on the causeway that connects Venice to the mainland. And although there's a good Italian running culture, in that particular place you don't see a lot of runners running back and forth watching the gondolas go by.

Is the Philharmonic traveling this summer?
We have a residency in Vail, Colorado every summer, usually the second half of July. That's a great place to run. I love the challenge of getting climatized to the altitude there. It's a funny thing--I notice it when I am walking around, going up stairs and things, but it doesn't seem to present me a problem when I'm running. I've never been able to figure out why. I guess I just get into a different mind state when I run. Or I'm always expecting to feel out of breath anyway.

How long are you out there?
Ten days to two weeks.

Otherwise do you have concerts?
Do you have a lucky t-shirt.

Do you particularly look forward to those?
They can be a lot of fun. The atmosphere is very casual and sort of picnicky, you have cats and dogs running around. It's hard to take yourself seriously under those circumstances. Is there a similarity between the competition as a professional musician and as an athlete?
I love that. I live just a block and a half from Central Park and one of the many things I really love about living in New York City is the sense of wonderful things happening just outside my door. It's a 15 minute walk to work for me from here to Lincoln Center and a five minute walk to the park. I really dig the realization when I am sitting on the temporary stage there that I am just sitting a couple of blocks from my house playing to a crowd of tens of thousands of people. It's fun finishing the marathon just to be able to walk home afterwards wearing one of those unbelievable Mylar capes.

Did you do anything special with your marathon medal?
It's just sitting on my desk. I keep meaning to frame my various memorabilia, the official time, the photos. I just haven't gotten around to it.

Did you eat pasta before each race?
I signed up for and tried to get in line for the big pasta feast that the Road Runner's Club holds but the line went on for blocks, so I just turned around and went home and made myself a bowl of ziti.

Do you eat the same thing before you go running or take something specific with you to eat on your run?
No. I try not to run on a full stomach of course. But I'm not one of those folks that brings a bottle of water with him when he goes running. I remember during the marathon, I was so afraid of getting a cramp that I drank very little and mostly would suck on orange wedges. At one point I took one of those squeezey things that they pass out at the marathon, they're very sweet. It made me gag; it was so awful. I really regretted that.

Have you ever run with a cello?
It energizes me completely. I always feel better and more prepared mentally and physically after I've run. It doesn't tire me.

Is there one time of day you like to run?
I guess ideally I do like to get it done in the morning but very often that's not possible with my schedule. I always find that I have the most energy for it late afternoon--after nap time. I have a cup of coffee, then wait a little while and then go running around five. My feet feel like they have wings on them. But like everybody else I've got those days where every step is a real trial and you have to get through that warm up period before you suddenly click into high gear.

Favorite running venue?
There's no reason not to, it's just that most performances take place at night. We're nocturnal creatures. But after a matinee for example there's no reason why I wouldn't want to go. I do have to say it's more likely it would happen the other way around because running energizes me but concerts deplete me. I find performing much more tiring.

If you're going to perform that night is it part of your routine to workout that afternoon?
Ideally. It always make me feel very good and very well primed for a performance. It never wears me out. I do like to have a nap as well. And I like to do it in that order. Nap and run, that's the ideal preparation for me. Afternoon nap, afternoon run, late meal and then a performance.

Is classical music good to listen to when you run?
Oh, yeah it's wonderful. Running is a great way to meditate on things and contemplate issues and turn them over in your head. Listening to music I'm trying to get to know on a portable CD player is a great thing to do while running. If I need to listen to a long piece of music for example, during my preparation, what better way than a 45 minute run? That will just about cover anything but the longest Mahler symphonies. That's if I want to concentrate on the music. If I just need some wallpaper music to get me through a tough workout I prefer pop music because it has a steady beat. Salsa is the best for running I find. It's the highest energy music I know. A lot of my colleagues are moving over to MP3 players. I probably have to go that route myself.

Is Bach better to listen to before running or Beethoven?
Just a little Panasonic portable. It's no big deal. One of these days I'll get myself an MP3 player and do it that way.

Is the Philharmonic traveling this summer?
For a classical musician, great classical master works don't really work as background music. We all find that when restaurants put classical pieces that we know on as soft background music, it's a tremendous annoyance to us because we just want to stop and listen. The volume is usually just below the threshold for you to hear clearly. We find it annoying and offensive because this is music that wasn't meant for background music. So it depends on what you need. If you're really in the mood to concentrate on something that's complex, that has certain surface complexity, then I'll put on a piece of classical concert music. If I need something mindless to get my spinal cord going then I'll put on pop music.

What's a good piece of classical music to listen to when running?
You know what would probably make a great running piece, I've never tried this but I might, is the suite from the ballet Daphnis and Chloe by Ravel. It's a kind of ecstatic music that I think would lift a runner into the next plane almost immediately. The beginning is actually music that depicts a sunrise but you can sort of plug it into any kind of ecstatic experience you can think of.

Have you ever run with a cello?
Strapped to my back? Only to catch a bus. I don't recommend that.

Can you imagine running a marathon carrying a cello?
I could see it as a great gag. I think it would kill me by about mile 10. Besides the fact it would put you way off balance. That's a pretty funny idea.

What's your goal as a runner?
For the next marathon I would like to achieve my potential, which I think is between three hours fifteen and three hours thirty minutes. I know I can do it. I just need the proper training. My '02 half marathon was exactly an hour and a half. And then I died because I hadn't been able to train past that point. I wound up running three hours fifty-one minutes. Although that was a good time for an amateur, that was disappointing to me because I knew it wasn't anywhere near my potential. I learned a lot from that because I also started with the fast men at the front of the pack on the Verrazzano [Bridge]. Despite the fact that I knew better I kept pace with them. They were easily doing a six and a half minute mile pace at the beginning and I'm more comfortable with a seven-minute mile pace and it wore me out by the time I got to the Queens Borough Bridge. So, I learned from that; I won't push from the beginning.

It was a pretty small team. There were probably no more than half a dozen kids?
A hot bath and a glass of chilly white wine. I knew all the people in the Philharmonic who had run the marathon because I could see them going down the stairs sideways the next day. We're doing the old man walk down the stairs. The last time it was just the three of us. And two of us finished within a minute of each other--amazing. And we never laid eyes on each other the entire race.

How do you celebrate after a regular run?
Usually it's finishing up my floor workouts and then a shower and getting dressed and getting on with the day. For hours afterwards I carry around a feeling of well-being from the run.

Does not running effect your playing?
Well I've always been a high energy person and I feel running certainly gives me reserves that I can draw on when performing becomes stressful or particularly demanding.

So running helps you cope with stress?
Absolutely, I am convinced it makes it easier for me to deal with stress. And it enables me to stay a high-energy person without imploding on itself and turning me into a frantic person. I like to be a high-energy person but with a calm core. And I think running is a great way to achieve that.

Are there any examples you can recall?
Every time I am performing something demanding I certainly feel that.

Yeah, unless its freezing cold?
I can't think of any specific instances. But I am always aware that I have a reserve of calm and energy that I can draw on. Those are very important things to have when you make your living doing difficult things live in front of paying customers. You have to maintain a poise.

Do you ever run off frustration or stress?
Absolutely. In addition to running as a way to combat future stress it's also a way to run off stress and anger. After a stressful rehearsal, particularly if we're dealing with an incompetent conductor, someone who raises your stress level because you feel he's wasting your time and it makes you feel worse about your job, running is a great way to work that out of your system.

Have you ever missed a performance because of a running injury?
No. The only thing that would make me miss a performance would be an injury to my hands in some way.

Do you run by yourself?
I'm almost always by myself at least when I'm here in New York. On the road sometimes I have a partner.

How will you change your training for this years marathon?
Did that teacher inspire you.

Does being a musician help your running?
Not directly. But I think they both demand the same kind of discipline. The difference between a professional and an amateur in any field, certainly in music, is that the professional cannot depend on the inspiration of the moment to produce a high quality product. You just have to be able to do it even when you don't want to. If you're feeling lousy or if you just had a fight with someone, nobody cares, you just have to go out and do it. So, I try to apply that same type of discipline to my workouts. There are plenty of days where I just sit on the sofa with a magazine and veg out. But I try to maintain a commitment to fitness. It's like practicing everyday. There are lots of days when I don't feel like practicing either.

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Oh, definitely. I almost always have music going through my head. I bet a lot of people do. It's a very natural thing. Very often it's some piece that we happen to be performing that week.

Can you run to recordings of yourself?
Rarely. Rarely. It's usually just swirling around in my head. It seems to be just as good as having the real thing going. And when you do it by memory you can switch to some other part instantly or keep looping the same place if you just want to keep listening to that.

What do you wear to run?
I try to dress as lightly as possible according to the weather. Because I like to feel that my body movements are free as possible. So, I just wear minimal shorts. In hot weather I'll just wear shorts and that's it. Or sometimes I rip apart old t-shirts and take the sleeves off. In the wintertime in New York, it can get pretty brutal here and I'll just dress up in tights or woolies and put on layers. I find it's very difficult to dress for cold weather because after the first mile or so you start sweating and it's uncomfortable. So I try not to lock myself into something. I try to wear layers of relatively light clothing so that I can pile them on or take them off as I need to feel comfortable.

Inspired me, pushed me, challenged me?
I have a New York Philharmonic tour t-shirt that I had taken the sleeves off of.

Are you going to wear it for this year's marathon?
Yeah, unless it's freezing cold.

Is there one type of shoe you like to wear?
My latest pair is a pair from Saucony. For years I used Asics. Generally I go with a shoe that's well designed for running on pavement--shoes with a lot of support and spring to them. That's almost all the running I do, urban running."

What model of Saucony sneaker?
3D Grid Hurricane 6. They're good for pavement running, since I don't exactly have access to country roads here. They're very comfortable. I haven't had any trouble with them. It was the recommendation of a salesman. For years I used Asics. The Saucony shoes are a very similar model to that.

What's the hardest part of running?
Nutrition - Weight Loss.

Do you particularly look forward to those?
Once those endorphins kick in, I'm just on a high. I love the rhythm of it. I love the solitude of it. In the course of a typical 45 minute run I can just retreat into my thoughts and think about my work or think about my hobbies in a very detailed way. Very often I'll come up with solutions to problems during a run because it's conducive to such a good interior focus.

Could you take Yo-Yo Ma in a race?
I don't know if Yo-Yo has ever put on a pair of running shoes. I'd have to take him on with C-major scales.

Will you ever run a three-and-a-half-hour marathon?
My main goal is to do longer distance workouts. That's what I didn't have the last time I ran. What I need to do is work in more 12 mile runs and more 18 mile runs. Now that I've run the course I know that the 59th street bridge separates the men from the boys. Once you get off that bridge and you start up First Avenue, that's a heartbreaker. First Avenue is just straight as an arrow all the way to the vanishing point on the horizon and it's slightly uphill. And if you're wearing out at that point it's difficult to overcome that psychological deficit. My goal with specific regard to the New York City marathon is to pace myself through Brooklyn, so that when I reach the 59th street bridge I've still got plenty of energy and plenty of psychological poise to take on First Avenue. That's what really killed me three years ago.

How will you change your training for this year's marathon?
I am definitely going to push my training into more long distance sessions. And I'll start a little further back in the pack so I'm not pressured to run fast in the beginning.

How about speed workouts?
I think what I need to do is make myself run slower actually. Slower and longer is definitely the way I need to go with my training. Another important thing for me is to keep stretched and limber. I have a tendency for my body to tighten up if I'm training a lot.

Health - Injuries?
Disappointed in myself. I immediately feel ten pounds heavier.

On days when you don't feel motivated to run, how do you get yourself motivated?
Just through mentally projecting how disappointed I'll feel if I don't do it. It's like making bank deposits. If I go running today then I feel better about maybe taking tomorrow off.

Why is it hard to keep up the consistency of workouts?
It's really about organizing your time in your head. That applies to any activity. When you're a busy professional and you have a family you don't have a lot of time for lazing around and doing crossword puzzles. Sometimes I really have to plan the whole day ahead mentally and shoe horn a run in when I have an hour say after rehearsal before picking up my children from school or something like that.

Have you ever run with a cello?
It's the same kind of music aerobic classes workout to. It's a psychological prod. It's hard not to be moving listening to music like that.

How about other races?
I'd love to but I have so little free time. Most of the races here are held on Sundays, and that's sacrosanct. That's our family day. I have two kids and we like to try to spend it together. Daddy doesn't go off running on Sunday.

Do you ever want to qualify for Boston?
Well, probably not because I have a young family and a full-time job here and it's very time consuming and my overwhelming sports passion is sailing so most of my free time I give to that and the running comes second to that. The one major advantage that running has over sailing is that it doesn't cost much.

Is there a similarity between the competition as a professional musician and as an athlete?
Well, you know in the music world I am a professional who is at the top of his field. As a runner I'm strictly an amateur. I just do it for pleasure and for my own personal gain. At the beginning of my career as a musician, of course, I would compete and I was competing for real but of course that was in a field in which I expected to excel and to make my living, so it's a very different situation. It's like comparing me to a top marathon runner who plays the violin on the weekends.

It seems that the running and playing feed off of each other?
Yes, they're very complementary. In a way you could say that being a musician makes you a better runner just simply in the sense you're used to a kind of discipline that requires a solitary application several hours a day. I'm sure there are many, many other fields of which the same thing can be said. And running I think certainly makes me a better player. It keeps me toned and relaxed and energetic.

Do you run because you're a competitive person?
Well, yeah, I guess, in the sense that it challenges myself and I don't know who else I would be competing with? Out of a field of 30,000 people, a good percentage of them leave me in the dust and I wouldn't even consider for a moment trying to compete with them. The whole idea is to set myself a challenge and meet it as best I can.

Was there a tuning point in your career where running really helped you get back on track?
There was a point in my life when I sort of plateaued in my career and I stopped running for a couple of years. And part of getting back into discipline cello playing and preparing for my Philharmonic audition was getting back into running as well. I felt it was just as important as the 4 or 5 hours of practice that I was putting in every day on the audition repertoire.

Conversely do you celebrate your achievements by running?
Well, there's probably a superstitious part of me that thinks as long as I keep up my running I can keep up the other threads in my life as well. It's a way of combating complacency.

Is there one thing you love about running?
It would be summed up by an ad I saw for a chain of gyms. It was brilliant. "I can't wait to get started. I can't wait till it's over." That sums it up.