Jerry Johncock (81), who set the U.S. marathon record for men aged 80-84 in last year’s Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon, was running the race again Sunday when he experienced a problem at about mile 21 of the 26.2-mile race.

He badly needed to urinate, but he couldn’t force anything out because of  a blood clott in his urethra.

A catheter would have fixed it, but there wasn’t one at the aid station where he stopped. Volunteers at the aid station wanted to take him to the hospital, but that would have meant dropping out of the race, however he had never dropped out of a race.

“I wanted to finish. I didn’t want to go to the hospital.” But he knew he couldn’t get to the finish without relieving himself.

“My bladder would’ve have burst or something,” he said.

Then a spectator who overheard the conversation said he had a spare catheter in his car.

“I said, ‘Oh, you saved my life. And you saved my marathon.’”

Johncock was able to insert it himself.

“What a relief that was. I must have had a pint of urine inside me,” he said.

He finished in 5:22:17, far off his record pace of 3:59:12 the year before. But he still won his age group.