Local National Post scribbler Ben Kaplan and his wife recently welcomed their second child into the world. Kaplan’s on the 24-hour new baby cycle and, as he explains over a chat in a café near his west-end home, it’s a wonderful time but not without its mental and emotional challenges. So Kaplan runs. A lot. Over the last four years, running has changed his life, and that experience is chronicled in his honest and enjoyable new book, Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now.

“Last night, I did my whole day, a million things,” says Kaplan. “But then I just go out there. I wanted to go really fast, and so I just started going really fast, and I was like, ‘Wow, I can do this.’ Sometimes it’s good to feel that way. I don’t know if it is just me, but it is easier to have negative feelings about all that you can’t do, and this was like, ‘I can do it. It feels good.’ ”

It sounds simple, and maybe that’s why it works. Kaplan first started running on assignment for the National Post. He tried one race, Around the Bay, then another and another. And, yes, there was a holster full of power gels at one time. But things have been different since a certain race in Boston. Halfway through the legendary marathon in 2012, Kaplan, a former Post City Magazines editor, had what he calls a “Jesus moment.” He wasn’t going to run 3:05; he wasn’t going to set a new personal best; and, given the heat, he wasn’t even sure he was going to cross the finish line at all.

“I mean, people were keeling over. This was the year before the bombings, but at the time it seemed kinda dangerous, and I said to myself, ‘I’m not coming off of this thing in a wheelchair,’ ” says Kaplan. “The goal went from 3:05 or die — I mean, I was really serious about it — I don’t know, it just went to, ‘OK get to your daughter, get to Julie, find them.’ Esme was just four months old, and I knew they’d be trying to find me. It felt hot, and you could see people going down and I just calmed down.

“I learned something, and it felt good,” says Kaplan. “That was the worst time I ever got, but it was my best race.”

Feet, Don’t Fail Me Now has all the trappings of a traditional running book, including information for newbies and training programs for a 5K, 10K, half-marathon and marathon. But thanks to Kaplan’s role as a prominent music writer in Toronto, there is also a bit of rock ‘n’ roll. Who wouldn’t want to know the favourite running songs of bona fide rock stars from the Black Keys and Jack White, to Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton?

Don’t let all the feel-good vibes fool you, Kaplan is still hard at work lowering his times — he wants to break three minutes in his next marathon — but running has become more than just staring at your watch.

“My philosophy is enjoy it,” he says. “If you get too carried away, you burn out on it. Last night, I just appreciated it. That’s it.”