The Phantom Stitch!

altercor

Hey,

I did a half marathon today. I did it as part of my training program for my 6th marathon. Im hoping to get sub-3 hours this time. Ive been following the Pfitzinger 55-70 program and only have 6 weeks left and am feeling in good shape to achieve my goal.

Anyways I tell ye this by way of background.l Im not a beginner by any means. TOday something very strange happened: I was about 10 miles in to my half and I was on for a decent (by my standards) 81-82mins when all of a sudden I got an almighty stitch! It was the weirdest thing. Totally halted my in my tracks. Legs felt fine, I wasnt puffed out of breath at all...I stopped a number of times until mile 12 and then it just left and I sprinted, fresh to the finish in 86mins, totally frustrated.

I didnt eat too close to the race (I had a 1 hour drive to get there and did a decent warm up prior to the race), I had my usual pre-long run breakfast. The only thing that may ahve caused it could be the fact that I took on a lot (1 bottle) of lucozade sport still just before the race.

Anyone have any idea as to why this happened? Ive been running/racing for a number of years and always thought that stitches were reserved for the more novice runner??

Any light shed on this would be appreciated!

Thanks!

tang1

Exact same thing happened to me 2day on a 10mile race, never ever suffer from stiches and like urself follow the same pre-race routine meal and preparation. Only thing i can think that affected me is i drank half bottle of blue powerade, would never drink energy drinks before a race. Didn't have to stop thankfully just had to slow my pace right down till i felt comfortable again.

Krusty_Clown

I was stopped in my tracks last year at the Frank Duffy 10 mile, with 250m to go to the finish line. Crippled. After about 10 seconds it started to ease up and I was able to push on. Missed my goal by 2 seconds. No idea what caused it. Because 10 mile race pace is typically above one's lactate threshold, I figured that after 59 minutes of running, it was a lactate accumulation somewhere. Don't think it was down to drinking a sports drink before the race, as I usually would and have never suffered a similar fate.

altercor

I did a bit of digging and came up with two potential reasons, one of which I personally would dismiss out of hand:

1. Drinking too much the morning of the race: Maybe so, I did pee an inordinate amount of times prior to the gun and during warm up. I drank about 1.5 litres before the gun and an awful amount on saturday. They also say drinking a concentrated sports drink like lucozade, powerade will do it for you. This seems like it could be the reason.

2. Apparently, studies have shown that people who exhale upon planting their right foot are more prone to stitches. THe reason being that your liver, apparently is slightly to the right side of the body. THose who exhale on their left foot are less susceptible to them. I wouldnt be so sure about this one..My breathing didnt change that dramatically yesterday..

Interesting that there are very few concrete theories as to how we get a stitch if you consider how common it is!

tunguska

I got one myself at the 9mile point of the 10miler on saturday. Was like being shot in the abdomen. Has happened to me in a few races at this stage. No idea what the problem is but when they do happen I find that digging your fist into the point of the stitch and massaging that area works in conjuction with breathing deeply then exhaling sharply.
Gonna start taking Glutamine powder again, never had any problems with stitches when I used to take it.

marathonm@n

I get them everytime I do a fast run. I even stopped doing 10k's for a few months as I always calved about 6/7k. It's a nightmare because I always thought that others will think I am faking it because I have set out to fast and am just wrecked and using them as an excuse.
They say your breathing,stride,posture etc,etc is to blame. I tried everything but with no success.
My last 10k a fortnight ago was no different, the stitch came on at 6k and I slowed up holding my side. Three runners passed me out at this stage and I was struggling. The first runner past me saw me holding my side and gave me his sweatband and told me to grip it as tight as I could and keep running. Sure enough the stitch subsided enough for it not to be a problem. I passed the 3 runners who had overtaken me and ran a pb in the process.
Don't know whether it takes your mind of it whether you are concentrating on something else or whatever? I don't know. All I know is that I don't leave for my run now without a sweatband (anything will do, he said if you have nothing then grab a lump of grass or something.
Hope this helps you as much as it helped me, as I know the frustration of it.
Good luck

btw

I never eat or drink anything at least an 1 1/2 hours before a 10k and I never drink during them so I knew this was not the problem.