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With video of Kevin Clapp's Philadelphia Marathon experience, and his blog on the morning after.

Oh, no. Not again.

I was nearing or at mile 18 of Sunday's Philadelphia Marathon when the tightness in my quads, on the inside of my knees – yes, both of them – began.

All I could think of was my previous marathon experiences, where similar symptoms resulted in a long, slow march to the finish, and times near or more than five hours.

Would it happen again? I was beginning to think so.

But I'm not the same kid who jumped headlong into those marathon experiences. I'm older, a little wiser thanks to those two races and, most importantly, much more stubborn.

So, I did the only thing I could: I ignored the pain. For as long as possible, anyway.

The 16th edition of Philadelphia's marathon came and went yesterday. I was just one of 10,000 or so registered runners to tackle the 26.2-mile course, which featured more hills than I'm used to but also showed me I have reservoirs of strength and determination I wasn't sure existed.

Because, believe me, I wanted to stop. I wanted to give in to the pain and limp to the finish, which I had to do in my first marathon and, to a lesser extent, in my second.

Two things worked in my favor, though. One, I was better prepared for this marathon than either of the others. And two, a Team In Training coach came to my rescue right when I needed it most.

It was at mile 23.5. I'd gone as far as my legs could take me. My thighs burned, and my left calf was starting to twitch. I thought I'd be crumpled in a heap for sure. I had already - I think; things are running together and sequences of events hard to figure - stopped to stretch once, and now I was toast.

Mentally, I was already writing the top of this column: Well, I gave it a good go, but in the end maybe my body's just not built to complete 26.2 miles.

But then Alanna Garrison-Kast appeared to offer encouragement and help me stretch out my aching muscles. She ran with me for a mile (that's her job on marathon day, to crisscross the course checking in with runners as the make their way through the course), and it made all the difference.

When she left, I was still a walking, talking muscle spasm. But I also knew I could make it to the end. Anyway, by that time I was near mile 25, and once you get that far, are you going to take a powder for the last little bit if you can help it? I wasn't.

When I ran my first marathon, it took me about three hours to complete its second half, and I finished with a time around 5:15. The next year, I shaved 25 minutes from my time, for about 4:50.

Sunday, I crossed the finish line in 3:56:59. A sub-four hour marathon. I'm still processing it all.

But you can't wipe the grin off my face. And I already know that one of these days, I'll run another one.

Coming next week: What's next?

Contact Kevin Clapp:

609-272-7255

kclapp@pressofac.com

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