Marathon

Bobby Curtis already has established himself as one of the best distance runners in the United States, having won the 2008 NCAA championship at 5,000 meters while competing for Villanova and clocking the best time by an American this year in the 10,000. So the natural temptation would be to take the next step and tackle the 26.2-mile marathon. That's exactly what Curtis will do Nov. 6, when he makes his debut at the epic distance in the ING New York City Marathon. "I guess all distance runners at some point in their life want to see what they can accomplish in a marathon," Curtis said Tuesday.

There we were, hunched over the dining-room table - a table topped with guidebooks, travel tips, brochures, fliers, coffee cups and the empty paper trays from a bag of Pepperidge Farm cookies - putting the finishing touches on the itinerary for a jam-packed weekend of theater, music, museums, dining, dancing, sightseeing, shopping and whatnot. We were ready. Ready for a weekend in New York, you say? Boston? Baltimore? Washington? Wrong, hoagie-breath. Ready for a cultural and culinary marathon in our own proverbial back yard, we were.

Ray Schailey will take a leisurely excursion around Absecon Island on Sunday. But he won't see most of the sites that make Atlantic City famous. He may take in a handful of curious fish, though. Come 8 a.m., Schailey, from Woodbury, will jump in the water at Historic Gardner's Basin, and begin the World Championship Ocean Marathon Swim, known locally as the Around-the-Island Swim. For almost 10 hours, he and 24 other swimmers from more than a half-dozen countries will brave torturous inlet currents, choppy waves, unpredictable water temperatures, and mental and physical fatigue to compete in the 22 1/2-mile event.

Bang on a Can Marathon . In the time it takes to fly to Istanbul, the Bang on a Can Marathon, which made its Philadelphia debut Sunday as part of the Live Arts Festival, went around the world of cutting-edge music with stopovers in Burma and Turkey, plus a side excursion into outer space. Explanation: The 10-hour one-day music fest at World Cafe Live featured Burmese artist Kyaw Kyaw Naing playing a set of 21 tuned drums, Philadelphia choir The Crossing singing the Turkish minimalism of Kamran Ince with Gloria (Everywhere)

A mini-marathon will start off Main Line Week, the annual series of events sponsored by the Main Line Chamber of Commerce and designed to promote the patronage of Main Line businesses. The 10-kilometer race, sponsored by Villanova University, will begin with registration at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at North Ithan Avenue on the Villanova campus. The entry fee is $5 if runners preregister at a local sporting goods store and $7 the day of the race. More than 100 events have been planned by local businesses and institutions for Main Line Week, which runs Sunday through Sept.

After Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard sang the last line of "The Official Ironman Rally Song," which talks about triggering a synapse "to free us from our traps," he looked around the Theatre of Living Arts with the smug air of a professor who'd just revealed a semester's worth of secrets. "That's what rock and roll is all about," he said as he downed another mouthful of beer and fingered what later became a tattered set list. In the course of Thursday's marathon performance, which started promisingly but ended as a sloppy, drunken mess, Pollard and his less-lubricated backing quartet surveyed lots of what rock and roll is about.

THE PHILADELPHIA Marathon is a life-transforming event for even the most experienced athlete. For 35 runners, it was part of a much larger journey - a challenge that began transforming their lives long before the starting gun. They were among the youngest runners, and easy to spot. In royal blue, they were part of Students Run Philly Style - a unique program that uses marathon training as a catalyst for changing lives and helping some of the city's most disadvantaged teens go further in life.

A mother of two from Alaska who does the majority of her training indoors on a treadmill stunned America's best female marathoners by winning the U.S. Olympic Trials Marathon Saturday in a personal-best time of 2 hours, 33 minutes, 31 seconds. Little-known Christine Clark, seeded 22nd in the field of 171, reeled in Anne Marie Lauck at the 20-mile mark, built a 20-second lead over the next mile and cruised to her biggest marathon win ever. Clark's time was a remarkable seven minutes faster than she had ever run. "I was in shock when I caught Anne Marie," said Clark, who qualified for the trials with a less-than-elite time of 2:40:38.

The calendar may show that it's September 1990, but the look along Moorestown's Main Street on Sunday was that of a bygone era when men, dressed in top hats and morning coats, and women, wearing long skirts and hats with flowers and bows, took out the family carriage and went for a Sunday ride. With hooves and carriage wheels beating time to a different era, the horses and their drivers were out for a carriage marathon, a five-mile saunter through Moorestown streets that ended with a gambler's choice - an obstacle course - in the center ring of the Moorestown Horse Show.

They struggled with sauna-like conditions, a staple of Philadelphia-area summers. They battled fatigue from being on the golf course for more than 12 hours. They felt the sore feet and hands of their marathons for days afterward. However, for more than two dozen assistant professionals, members of the Philadelphia Assistants Organization, the fourth annual Links to Charity golf marathon was well worth it, providing funds to aid youth golf and the community at large. Tomorrow, before the Charity Championship at Talamore at Oak Terrace, the organization will present a check for more than $45,000 to its beneficiaries - the Variety Club, Fox Chase Cancer Center, the LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program, and The First Tee. That brings the four-year total raised to around $200,000.

Andras Schiff played the recital of his life on Tuesday, and in light of the lofty standard established by this 58-year-old pianist, that's saying a lot. But the 2½-hour recital of miniature works — the first half had 74 movements or pieces played without pause — was a lot to take in. Comfortable enjoyment wasn't in the game plan. While Schiff has long charmed his public with his teddy-bear presence and poetic, soft-spoken concerts of Bach, his Tuesday recital, presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Perelman Theater, interspersed Bach inventions among more assaultive peasant dances by Bartok and the brand-new Circus Dances by the contemporary Austrian composer Jorg Widmann.

WASHINGTON - The New York Rangers played what amounted to two games over 2 days just to get one win against the Washington Capitals. Each team scored a goal in the second period, then skated up and down the ice for the next 83 minutes before Marian Gaborik gave the Rangers a 2-1 victory at 14:41 of the third overtime to end the 20th longest game in the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs, a tense matchup that began on Wednesday night and...

A University of Delaware dance marathon Sunday raised more than $450,000 for a pediatric cancer charity, organizers announced. The donations will go to the B+ Foundation, which provides support to families with seriously ill children and sponsors research. More than 2,500 students and community members participated in the 12-hour event. - Susan Snyder

About 4:30 a.m., Bradley Wrenn knew his fellow cast members needed a lift: They had been acting for nearly nine hours straight - and had 15 more to go. So he scrapped his fireman's uniform and came out on stage in a thong. "I decided I should match that," said fellow cast member Gwendolyn Rooker. Out she came sans maid costume, in just a bra and panties. And so it went at Plays & Players Theatre in Center City on Saturday, where Brat Productions staged a 24-hour version of The Bald Soprano.

The top distance runners in the country will be competing for spots on the U.S. Olympic team Saturday in Houston during the Olympic trials marathon. The top three male and female finishers in the 26.2-mile race will qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The favorite in the men's race is Ryan Hall, 29, who has the best American marathon time - a 2-hour, 4-minute, 58-second run in the 2011 Boston Marathon - and won the 2008 Olympic marathon trials. He also finished first in the 2009 Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia.

The top distance runners in the country will be competing for spots on the U.S. Olympic team Saturday in Houston during the Olympic trials marathon. The top three male and female finishers in the 26.2-mile race will qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. The favorite in the men's race is Ryan Hall, 29, who has the best American marathon time - a 2-hour, 4-minute, 58-second run in the 2011 Boston Marathon - and won the 2008 Olympic marathon trials. He also finished first in the 2009 Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia.

By this time next week, Republican candidates for president will be holding their final town-hall meetings in Iowa, attending services at megachurches in Sioux City or suburban Des Moines and maybe tucking into one more Maid-Rite loose meat sandwich for a lunch/photo-op. On Jan. 3, the voting begins with the Iowa caucuses - and, in any normal nominating year, the whole thing could be over within weeks. New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida all hold primaries by the end of January.

Sometime reality star and Philly native Kate Gosselin , 36, achieved a real feat in Las Vegas this weekend. No, she didn't set a gambling record: The mother of eight ran her first marathon, completing the Zappos.com Rock 'n' Roll Las Vegas Marathon in 4 hours, 59 minutes, and 21 seconds, People reports. "I'm not one to do anything lightly," Kate told the mag before the race. "I either do it or I kill it. I guess this is considered killing it. " Kate told People she took on the challenge to inspire her kids.

AS A middle-age woman who has been physically active for the past 30 years or so, my heart went out to the runners who collapsed and died on Sunday. I have over the years done the running and the spinning classes, the Jane Fonda high-impact aerobics, the elliptical machine, you name it I have done it. I am an official advocate of yoga and weightlifting. I know some people will see this as a way to remain sedentary. That is not the way to go. Research has proven time and time again that consistent exercise helps the body heal.

Two competitors died in the Philadelphia long-distance races Sunday, and perhaps it's time to raise this serious question about marathons: Why? After all, human beings were not built to go 26.2 miles at a clip. You want to jog on a treadmill? Fine. You want to do four laps around the high school track? Fine. But if you feel compelled to run on asphalt for three-plus hours, pushing your body to the brink of catatonia, you really ought to consider therapy. I don't get it. Exactly what point is being made by emulating the suicide of a Greek messenger 2,500 years ago?