Ran my first marathon event yesterday. Finished with a bib time of 3:55.
The first 32km I held a 5:05 pace per km and was feeling alright mentally and physically and then got whacked with hamstring cramps for 4km. After 3 salt tablets and alot of stretching every few hundred meters they went away at 37km and I got back on track.
The weather was cool, I ran with electrolytes in a bottle the whole time, took on water every couple of drink stations, I even did a 42km run in my training block just to know I can make the distance, peaked at 80km a week and had a 2 week taper.
Besides my training being mainly low elevation due to living on the beach and this marathon has some decent elevation, is it just inexperience that made me cramp?
For context been running 14 months, 30 years old, 10k time 43 minutes, half marathon time 1:38