Really, really bad cramps.

[DPS]

So I came down with the flu on Wednesday and ran the Seattle Marathon on Sunday. I felt pretty good and was easily making my splits (<6:50/mile) until mile 17 when everything cramped. My diaphram, my stomach, my hams, calves, quads, outside of quads. It was the strangest thing, it was like my muscles had frozen. I hobbled across the finish line, about an hour longer than I had anticipated.

 

I drank a liter of water before the run, and drank a cup of water at every station and power aid at roughly every other station. I drank at least as much, if not more than I did during training runs.

 

Some questions: Are the cramps a possible affect from the flu?

 

I had been drinking lots of fluids and water spiked with Emergen-C, a powder with Vitamin C, Magnesium, Potasium, etc. Could I have overdosed on those elements thus causing the cramping?

 

I had been doing my long runs on trails, runs much longer and harder than I anticipated the marathon to be (up to 24 mile runs with ~8,000 ft elevation gain) and had never experienced any cramping even when I drank no fluids during the run.

 

Fellow runners advised me to do at least half of my long runs on pavement to get my body used to the pounding it would take. Could my poor performance be due to the fact that my longest runs on pavement were only 16 milers?

 

Any ideas?

 

[Greg_W]

My uneducated guess would be it was flu-induced. My thinking is that you were more dehydrated by your illness than you thought and what would normally be sufficient pre-race water intake wasn't sufficient in this case. I don't know about the vitamin factor.

[allthumbs]

Sounds like you're pregnant. Congratulations! Who's the father?

[DPS]

I'm pregnant? Damn it, she swore she was using birth control!

[freeclimb9]

Absorption of salts is enhanced when consumed with carbs, or sugars. Emergen-C doesn't have much in the way of carbs, or sugars. That could be part of the problem. Being under attack by a virus would be the rest of the problem.

Did you consume any carbohydrates, or sugars, during your run? Depletion of liver glycogen causes onset of feeling exhausted. Your muscle glycogen would be very low then, also. This feeling is the famed "wall". I've hit it, and felt like a spaz.

 

[DPS]

I ate cliff bars the mornign before the marathon and ate power gels during. I have done longer runs not eating anything and felt fine. I was not tired at all during the marathon, my legs just cramped and stiffed horribly. I probably would have done better walking on my hands at that point.

[icegirl]

not enought calcium can also cause horrible cramping. Little known fact We all tank up on the banana's, but in reality, even the men should be taking a calcium supplement

[wdietsch]

...... until mile 17 when everything cramped. My diaphram, my stomach, my hams, calves, quads, outside of quads. It was the strangest thing, it was like my muscles had frozen. I hobbled across the finish line, about an hour longer than I had anticipated.

 

you've been Trask's cooking again .... havn't you

[jon]

Pickle juice.