My 2nd Half marathon - update.....no calf cramps!!!!!!!!!!!

ChrisRiches

About a month ago I posted about my first half marathon, the Lululemon SeaWheeze here in Vancouver. I had done lots of training, conditions were perfect. It was a beautiful day and everything was going well until both my calves seized up around 16km in. I received a lot of great feedback from the MFP community. I was very discouraged and disappointed at my time of 2:48. I basically ran/walked/hobbled the last 6km of the race. All the training I had done suggested a goal of 2:30 was reasonable for me.

This past Saturday I ran the Kelowna Wine Country Half Marathon - I signed up because I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. And I did!!!!!!! No calf cramps, no issues at all (other than the normal ones you would expect while running 21.1km). And my time was 2:30 and 54 seconds. If I hadn't made a quick pit stop about 2/3 of the way through, I could probably have seen 2 hours and 28 or 29. I wasn't the fastest runner there, to be sure, but I finished about 604th out of 1025 runners. I took into consideration all the helpful suggestions I had received, as well as the positive and encouraging words. And it really helped.

Thank you, MFP community. You rock!

SonicDeathMonkey80

That's a very good time! Way to go

ChrisRiches

Thanks! I enjoyed your blog about your full marathon this past weekend. Congratulations, awesome job!!!!!!!

cleback

Awesome job! You should be proud of yourself how you didn't give up!

ChrisRiches

Thank you - yes, I am pretty happy about it. :blushing:

seepersaud

That's awesome - congratulations!

dobfankris

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing your success and progress. It is an inspiration

ChrisRiches

And again, I thank you awesome people for the support. It really does make a difference. This weekend I am doing a colour run, which will be just for fun. Then in 2 weeks, our community is holding something called the "Mud Trials". It is a scaled down version of Tough Mudder - 5 km and 22 obstacles. That's my next challenge. If someone had told me that at the age of 48 I would be going to boot camp, running half marathons and doing mini Tough Mudders, I would have been rolling on the floor laughing. Who knew?

lizsmith1976

That's so awesome! I really want to travel and do the lulu half marathon some year! I have a full race schedule for the next couple tho, hopefully in the future

Congrats on your time and on completing your 2nd half! The half is my favorite race/favorite distance

What were the tips you got that worked for you? I have never had a cramping problem, but my boyfriend is now and can hardly make it through a race! We do triathlons though, so he is running after swimming & biking, but I'm guessing the issues and how to fix them are the same.

ChrisRiches

Thanks! Yes, I think the Half is just about the right challenge for me. The Lulu was awesome, and I was fortunate enough to be able to train for a couple of weeks along the same route as the race. Next year's goal will of course to beat this year.

Most of the tips I received had to do with either hydration or muscle fatigue. Another possibility was that since I wasn't tracking my pace, possibly I had started out too fast early on. I think I had trained well enough, and had completed a 20 km run 2 weeks before the race, so I didn't think it was muscle fatigue. So I worked on hydrating. I had read that you should start hydrating a few days before a race, and then stopping the night before. So I did that. I also wore my earbuds so I could keep track of my pace on my Nike Running app. That helped a lot. It didn't hurt to add a couple of new tunes to my playlist. It did add to the enjoyment of the run. (favourites: "Jump" by Van Halen and "Born to Run" by Springsteen).

Now a funny thing happened after the race - I heard from 3 different people within 24 hours that you can relieve/eliminate muscle cramping by taking magnesium. One was a nurse, the second was a friend who had learned this from her elderly mother, and the third was a homeopathic pharmacist.

So I bought a bottle of magnesium powder - raspberry-lemon flavour. I just add a teaspoon to water at night before bed and drink it up. It fizzes a little, and tastes quite good. Anyhow, I also have been getting calf cramps at night, and I have to say, since I started taking magnesium, they have stopped completely. The other bonus is that magnesium acts as a muscle relaxer, so I have been sleeping much better as well. No more restless legs at night!!!

Hopefully some of this information is helpful to your boyfriend.

Triathlons? That's awesome!!!!!

eaglefish

Awesome time(s) & perseverance to just make yourself finish even w/the pain you experienced during the first half you ran !! For me it's all about hydration & nutrition before & during the race. Just have to find a combination that works for you. I like the Gu stuff during the race - I just need to remember to open a package & start eating some before I feel the "need" for it. If I wait untill then it just takes me too long to bounce back.

WhataBroad

WTG!! Good for you and great time as well. I would suggest hydration was a factor in the cramping as well. I ran the SeaWheeze this year as well, also my first half. I couldn't have picked a better run to do for the first experience and look forward to next years.