Severe stomach pain (near hip lines) during 10K race

After hitting the midpoint of a 10K i began to have severe stomach cramps (especially near my left and right hip lines (or whatever you call those lines).  At first I could handle it while doing a decent pace, I then trying to press down on the spot that hurt, which actually helped a bit, but the pain got so severe i began to jog and then had to out-right stop (which was a disaster in a tightly-packed 10K race). After a 3 second stop (that short), i began to run again, felt all better and then probably ran my quickest mile at the end. I think I lost around 20 spots though due to this whole stomach episode. 

From doing some casual research it seems like it just had to do with some of my muscles not use to such a fast pace for more than the typical 5K-type race that I have been doing, in addition to bad breathing.

It seemed like this problem was common though, so I just wanted to see if others went through it too.