Bayshore Marathon Soreness

harrast

Looking at my splits, everything was spot on until mile 15 when extreme quad cramps/soreness made race pace impossible to sustain.  The temp was about 60 at the start and maybe 70 at the finish with overcast skies.  I took salt pills as a precaution and drank at every rest stop.  My final marathon time was 5 vDot levels slower than my recent 5K and 10K performance and 4 vDot levels below the last HM I did in the fall.  Here is the question that I posted in the dashboard:

Has anyone experienced REALLY sore/cramped quads during a marathon on a flat course? Have you found a way to prevent this? When I say sore quads, I mean the kind that make you wince and want to pack it up. Has anyone tried doing squats to strengthen these muscles? I'm grasping at straws. I just need some leads here.  (I do take salt pills during a race and I drink at every stop. I'm 5'9" a little under 150 Lbs. I've done long runs on similar terrain up to 21 miles and never experienced such pains, with pacing even faster than I did in the race.)

I'm guessing that I need to be a more dedicated marathoner if I'm going to overcome the obstacles, i.e., do more weekly miles.  I'm kind of splitting my time between marathons and triathlons right now--maybe this is the result. 

Coach Patrick

Steven, it could be that you had some serious fatigue from your training that you weren't fully rid of pre-race day? The kind of fatigue that makes doing long runs manageable week after week, but makes racing at race pace hard after 1/2 way on the day. Odds are it wasn't a nutrition issue that hit you at the ~ 2 hour mark. Did you wear any new shoes? How did you pace the first 5 miles? Was it slower per our race guidance?

harrast

I have a feeling you're right. I really didn't let up on the cycling until the Saturday (7 days) before the race. I wore the new Brooks Pureflow which have decent cushioning and have been used in training for a couple months. I paced the first 5 miles at 15 Sec. over goal pace then went to 5 Sec. under for miles 6-20 (although I started to go over pace at mile 14). The day was also a little warm for my liking (60 degrees at 7am), but I don't think that was necessarily the cause of my cramped quads.