Finished my 3rd marathon a few weeks ago (Jersey City Marathon) after my first real structured training (used Pfitz 18/55) and got to my goal of 3:30. (3:27:44 on the watch, but 3:30 was my official time). Despite some modifications due to injury in early January, got basically all my long runs including two 20 milers with the last 4 miles at marathon pace. So felt pretty confident going into the race.
2 photos are: my marathon race splits, my final 20 mile long run.
During long runs, I trained to take gels every 30min, and carried 150ml of water in a soft flask. In the actual race, I not only brought my flask, but also took water and occasional Gatorade they had on the course. So I definitely hydrated even more than in my training. Also did carb loading the days before and had my normal breakfast the morning of. Essentially felt great.
Throughout the marathon, there was basically no point that my legs felt tired, exhausted, or as if I couldn't keep running. In hindsight, I could have aimed for a faster time, but I was locked in on my 3:30 goal and too nervous to do too much. Future goal (maybe next year but no rush) is to drop down to 3:20 or 3:15 with proper strength training and going in with a bigger base.
BUT I did run into an unexpected issue of cramps.
Just after 18 miles, my right quad started to slightly cramp up. It wasn't bad, but figured I could stop to quickly stretch for 5 seconds instead of possibly have it get worse later. Did that, and within half a mile of running again, the cramp was gone and I was right back on pace.
Then around mile 24-25 both my quads started to cramp up. Again, it wasn't bad enough were I needed to stop running, but I felt if I stopped to stretch this time, my legs would lock up. So I did a kind of "running massage" where I just used my hand to massage my quads every time my legs came up. It was awkward, but crazy enough, I still maintained pace. But it felt if I went any faster I would risk my quads completely locking up.
Any thoughts on what could have caused these cramps? My first thought is hydration, but I've never had any quad issues in training despite being more hydrated in the actual race. The course was also pretty flat, but between mile 20-24 it was kind of up and down with the elevation, but didn't feel like that on the run (IMO). I also trained with some hills throughout so didn't think this would be the cause, but who knows? I also stopped strength training around February as I felt way too exhausted and on the edge of injury with all the miles. So thought that could be a factor?
Also, I figure my heartrate was just completely off as I cant fathom it was going down and remained so low for the majority of the race (just HR from garmin watch, no strap)...Thoughts?