u/Jan-PapieszIII

Hi, I’m running my first marathon in a week (I’ve already done a few half marathons), and today I did my last long run — planned for 30 km. I’m aiming for a very safe pace of around 7:00 min/km (I’m a complete amateur), even though I feel like I could probably hold 6:20 based on app predictions. Still, I don’t want to push it.

I usually train on a route with quite a bit of elevation (about 330 m total gain), while the marathon course will be much flatter.

Around 22.5 km, I started to feel something like a pre-cramp in my right calf. It really surprised me because I felt strong and not overexerted at all — my average heart rate was around 150 bpm (165 max). I was also running much slower than my usual half marathon pace.

After about 2.5 km and slowing down, everything went back to normal, but it threw me off rhythm, so I decided to cut the run slightly short at 27.5 km (the last 2.5 km I actually ran a bit faster again).

During the run I made sure to stay hydrated, took electrolytes, and even had some gels.

Do you have any advice on how to prevent situations like this during a run, or how to deal with it if it happens mid-race? I know this might sound like a trivial issue, but as I said — I’m a complete beginner.

Hi, I’m running my first marathon in a week (I’ve already done a few half marathons), and today I did my last long run — planned for 30 km. I’m aiming for a very safe pace of around 7:00 min/km (I’m a complete amateur), even though I feel like I could probably hold 6:20 based on app predictions. Still, I don’t want to push it.

I usually train on a route with quite a bit of elevation (about 330 m total gain), while the marathon course will be much flatter.

Around 22.5 km, I started to feel something like a pre-cramp in my right calf. It really surprised me because I felt strong and not overexerted at all — my average heart rate was around 150 bpm (165 max). I was also running slower than my usual half marathon pace.

After about 2.5 km and slowing down, everything went back to normal, but it threw me off rhythm, so I decided to cut the run slightly short at 27.5 km (the last 2.5 km I actually ran a bit faster again).

During the run I made sure to stay hydrated, took electrolytes, and even had some gels.

Do you have any advice on how to prevent situations like this during a run, or how to deal with it if it happens mid-race? I know this might sound like a trivial issue, but as I said — I’m a complete beginner.