Mark's Blog

Sounds like someone should forward that URL to the city council, it's committee sportif, and it's permit department. Then, if you really want to be involved in running, become an event organizer, it looks like there is an opportunity to be filled...

You didn't say in your other post how much you managed to drink at their non-existant hydration stations (I hate terms like that, there should be a better name for them--watering holes?). But I've always heard that lack of water is a major factor in cramps: not enough fluid in the blood to wash out the lactic acid, so it builds up in the muscles. And I have no idea what the lack of salt replenishment does to your hydrolyte balance and how that affects your body. So compare your water intake (and sweating conditions) here to your last marathon and training runs. When your body is out of its usual hydration range, you might be subject to easy cramping.

For me the fun part is running the course. In fact it might be nice to do a marathon without all the other people, just keep going alone until I finish.

Jerome talked me into organizing runs at work, but so far the turnout has been small. One guy in two runs, and it wasn't Jerome.

There wasn't enough water, true. It was a two lap affair, and by the end of the first lap, I was asking bystanders with water for a sip. Then I'd give the bottle back to another bystander so the next runner could ask for it. At the couple of aid stations where there was still something to drink, we tried to share, leaving the bottles upright so they wouldn't spill and the next guy could get them. This was especially true for bottles of sports drink.

If you're going that far, you do better with sports drink which is sugar, some vitamins, and some minerals. But the cramping could've been from other factors: starting too fast, drinking too much in the afternoon, running late in the day, overheating, something I ate too much/too little of, not stretching enough during training, not running hard enough during training, running too much during training, lacing my shoes wrong... I don't know. The hard part is going to be tracking down the real cause.