Run Report #1: Bulldog Breakaway Twilight Series 5k

Welcome to Run Report! This is where I document my running journey. Whether it’s workouts, races, or interesting stuff I learn, I cover it here. I’m not a professional runner, doctor, personal trainer, or anything other than a person who enjoys running. If you like this, check out my show!

As I’ve written about before, I’ve recently gotten into running as a way to fill the void that competitive sports left in my soul. Running is great because you can work on it alone and it’s an internal battle with yourself. In fact, there are a lot of similarities between running and another activity I’ve focused more on this year, writing. 

Much like I post my writing here for everyone to judge publicly, I’ve also been entering organized running events so that everyone (myself included) can see how my running journey is going. What better way to combine the two activities into one giant self-improvement project than to write about how these events go?

I’ve done this before, but it’s my goal to follow more of a template moving forward while also working on brevity. With that being said, let’s get right into it!

Event Name: Bulldog Breakaway Twilight Series #1

Date: Thursday, June 6th, 2024

Location: Campus of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina

Distance: 5k (3.11 miles)

Background

There aren’t a ton of local running events during the summer due to it being hotter than a pot of rice. However, the Bulldog Breakaway Twilight Series utilizes a shorter distance and evening start times to make things as bearable as possible. The word “series” might have clued you into the fact that there is more than one of these, and you would be correct! Each Thursday in June, there will be a race and I will attempt to run each of them. 

I’ve been dealing with various nagging injuries after participating in this year’s Cooper River Bridge Run, but have been able to work around them to do some 10k-specific training to increase my endurance. As I have researched various training methods, I have realized how much better I could have been training this whole time. Little good that does me now. However, I did lower my 10k PR in training (52:55 for those of you keeping score at home), so it’s not like this has been a complete waste by any means. 

My big concerns heading into the race are 1) nutrition and 2) those nagging injuries. With nutrition, all of my previous races have been in the morning where I’d wake up, fuel up, and go. I’m curious to see what my fuel needs look like after a whole day of being awake and active. 

Post-Bridge Run, it was clear that I had some flexibility issues and strength imbalances to address. I started working on that and was definitely headed in the right direction. I also took the week before this race off because I was out of town for a work conference. My body felt 100% healed. 

I felt brave enough to ease back into my workout routine this week, including my normal Thursday morning HIIT workout with my trainer. Imagine my surprise when halfway through, doing a weight I use for warmups on an exercise I’ve done a million times, it felt like someone stabbed me in the back. 

I was initially terrified that I had herniated a disc, but thankfully I had only strained my Quadratus Lumborum or QL. I’m nowhere close to being qualified enough to explain all that it does, so go to a medical professional for that. But, unbeknownst to me, this muscle is what caused me back trouble after the Bridge Run, I just didn’t know what to call it. 

While I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to run at all, the pain eased up as I went about my day. This is the United States, so I googled instead of going to a doctor, but the internet seemed to agree that smart movement was fine so long as there was no pain. So I decided to make my way to the run and go through a warmup to see how everything felt. From there, I could decide whether to walk it, run it, race it, or just go home. 

I got to The Citadel’s campus about 30 minutes before the start time. During my warmup routine, I spent a little extra time on my back (obviously!), and also my glutes and hamstrings, which affect QLs (again, I have no medical background). Everything felt surprisingly normal, so I felt comfortable at least trying to race the course. I say trying because I quickly had another concern pop up: the heat. 

Now, the heat in Charleston in June is about as surprising as the sun coming up each morning. And, honestly, I’ve always loved the heat. Even as a child, I’d be outside getting shots up during the hottest part of the day. I had attempted to do most of my running workouts leading up to this race in the middle of the day to make sure I was properly acclimated. However, this was the hottest day of the year up to this point, and it’s hard to prepare for that. 

I thought the 6:30 pm starting time would take the edge off the 94-degree peak temp for the day, but I am an idiot. By the end of my warmup, I had completely sweat through my shirt. The sun showed no signs of retreating, and the heat rising off the asphalt made it feel like I was in an air fryer. But I was there, so I lined up on the starting line with my shirt which now doubled as a weight vest, and waited for the starting gun to fire. 

The Race

The course took us around The Citadel’s track and campus, out for a lap around Hampton Park, then back to where we started. I tried to find a rhythm early, run my race, and make sure my back was holding up fine. Things were going better than I thought, and I ran the 1st mile in 7:18. This was 2 seconds off my 5k PR pace, which was run in temperatures at least 20 degrees cooler. 

When you race a 5k, you know pain is coming at some point. I feel confident saying that as someone who has run a whole two 5ks prior to this one. Pain showed up about halfway through the race. It was a different kind of pain though. My muscles and lungs felt fine, considering. I was hot as shit though. Even resorting to strategic cold water dumping at the aid station didn’t provide much relief, which meant that everyone at Hampton Park saw me dump half a water bottle down my boxers for no reason. 

According to my fitness watch, my average heart rate skyrocketed from 147 for mile 1 to 188 for mile 2. This showed up in my split time too, as I ran just over a minute slower. I made a business decision to find a pace that wouldn’t kill me but was also more than a walk. My final mile and change was at an 8:45/mile pace and I finished with a time of 25:39. 

I had a water bottle filled with electrolytes in my car, and I drank that as I did my cooldown walk. I cranked my car’s A/C as high as it could go and changed into the t-shirt that came with my race registration for the ride home. Overall, not a bad experience. Let’s see if I can get my body ready to do it again in a week. Here’s a cool (hah!) article on how heat affects runners.