Westport St Patty's Day 4 Mile Run Race Report

Saturday March 10 was the Wesport St. Patty's Day 4 Mile Run, held in the famous Westport area of Kansas City.  The course started and finished in Westport, and was HEAVILY themed for St. Patty's Day!  There were tons of ladies dressed in tutus, leprechauns, and some people that were really hungover from the BIG XII Tournament in KC...

Due to some nagging IT band issues, I chose to run the race with my girlfriend Rachel, who was told to keep me under control!  Although she was incredibly hesitant, she ultimately agreed to me running with her.  But not that she really had a choice... :)

Pre-race:
For the 10:00am start, we got to sleep in a bit, which was a first for me on race day.  We were up at 7:30, had some oatmeal, coffee, and a banana (typical breakfast), and were out the door.

We arrived at the race site around 8:45am, which apparently was insanely early.  I had never done the race before, but knew that they were expecting close to 4,000 participants, so I figured getting there early would be a good idea.  We were there before they had the inflatable start and finish lines up... But our parking spot was the bomb dot com!

Hey, it's up!

The weather was amazing.  Temps were in the 50s to 60s for the morning, and not a cloud in the sky.  Rachel and I walked around a bit to warm up, and hit the portajohns, a race day must!

Portapotty Corner!!!

About 25 minutes before the start of the race, the line was crazy long.  Like 150 people deep.  But it went surprisingly quick, and we were in and out in about 10 minutes.  That's some pretty quick service!

As time was getting close to 10:00am, we found the 9:00/mile start area, and we settled in.  Rach's mom and Sis/Bro in law (my carbo-loading coach) found us right before the start and wished us luck!

At 10:00am, the gun went off, a bunch of quick guys took off, and we began moving 15 seconds later!

Race:
The course itself had a few rolling hills throughout.  We started in Westport, heading south for a bit, then headed back north.  During Mile 1, there was a decent incline stretch were people were breathing hard.  This was also about the time when we passed a herd of moms pushing their kids in strollers, who apparently started at the very front of the race.  WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS!?!  This was also the first time of the day where I saw someone throwing up.  Less than 1 mile into the race.  Yup, hungover...

Mile 2 was fairly uneventful.  As I typically do during races, I spaced out and don't remember much.  Other than my IT band was starting to tighten up.  Poop....

Mile 3 we started heading back to the start.  I was feeling okay at this point, just focusing on my running mechanics and not trying to drop Rach... haha.  We did see some paparrazi out on the course. I made sure to point them out to Rach!

Real candid shot, right?

Mile 4:  This was by far the best mile of the day!  It was all down hill, getting close to the finish, and there was an "unofficial" aid station handing out beers and jello shots!  I got down 1 beer and 2 green jello shots before seeing the finish line!  They were surprisingly easier to stomach then gels!

As we approached the finish, Rach turned on the jets and blew by me!  She's so great!!!

Just finished! We lost... :(

Results:
Mark Burghart, 25
Total Time:  38:30
Pace:  9:38/mile

Pics:

Oh so stoic...

AND there's this.  I think I had to pee...

Overall
After the race, we headed to grab some post-race grub.  The organizers had a good amount of rolls, bananas, yogurt, chocolate milk, and water (although there was a guy SCREAMING "ONLY ONE WATER EACH!!!) Afterwards, we skipped getting the race results (see the results section here for reasons why...) and headed out for some much deserved lunch!  BURGERS! Yes!

Overall, I had a great time, despite being really bummed about holding back.  I was hoping to shoot for a sub 30 minute race, but I guess I can settle for a sub 39 minute race without aggravating my leg!  I had a lot of fun running with Rachel, who didn't stop once despite zero training (She's studying for her boards exam coming up!!!).  Again, she never stops amazing me!

I also thought the organizers did a great job keeping the 4,000 runners happy!  It was a great event, one that I plan on doing again. Next time, though, I will find a little more GREEN to wear!

Thanks for reading!

Westport St Patty's Day 4 Mile Run Preview!

Nothing much to say, other than it's MY FIRST RACE IN 2012!!!!

That's right!  It's the first time I will be having some pre-race jitters since last October!  Ah, seems like it was such a long time ago... The 4 mile race will be the shortest race I've done! (yep, no 5k yet.  Still working on building my endurance! Maybe after the Half Ironman....)

The race will be tomorrow (Saturday) at 10:00am, by far the latest start time I have seen in my short endurance career!  I'm excited for that!  The run course will be taking runners through the Westport area of Kansas City, Missouri.  I have ran through most of the course already, but it should still be fun!

While I'm very excited to get the blood pumping in a race atmosphere, I'm kinda bummed.  My left IT Band is still giving me problems, even after a complete week off of running (but a super heavy bike week, and still swimming...).  Stretching, yoga, foam rolling, and consistently icing have made a HUGE difference in the pain, but I still have it.  So my 'race' will be a fun one, and I will be running with Rachel!

I definitely think I'm about a week away from being recovered, and I don't want to take a step back in my recovery. So I'm content with starting the year off with a fun run, as opposed to the sub 27:00 4 mile run I originally wanted.

Oh well!  In the big scheme of things this year, this race literally means nothing to me.  I'm more concerned with the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon in April, and the looming Triathlon Season!!! Time to get healthy!


Back with the race report this weekend!

Thanks for reading!

P.S. Go Jayhawks!

Mark's IT Band! Back again!

Throughout the winter, I've been dealing with a nagging iliotibial (aka IT) band issue that has randomly been flaring up. It started back in early December, and has gone through a random cycle of going away and reappearing for the last few months.  Last week, I put in a little more run volume than I originally intended, and began experiencing some pain midrun on my long run Sunday.  To make matters worse, the long run Sunday turned even longer due to a wrong turn, and tacked on an extra 3 miles.

http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/itband.v2.html

Usually the pain from IT Band Syndrome, as it's called, is focused more around the knee in runners.  For me, it's strictly at my hip.  And I'm guessing it stems from 2 causes:  Increasing my run volume and intensity a bit too fast, and some biomechanical problems.

As I've noted before HERE, I've been more aware of my stride and foot placement while running. This winter, I focused more on a quicker turnover or cadence, and transitioned to more of a midfoot strike (as opposed to my previously massive heelstrike).  With the focus on my turnover and foot strike, I neglected some of the strengthening exercises this winter.  During runs, I've noticed more inward rotation of my leg.  I tend to also overpronate a bit, which only adds tension to my IT band.  I had a good set of exercises that were given to me by PT friends that really seemed to help, when I did them...  If my symptoms weren't present, I didn't do the exercises.

Presently, the pain has never been worse.  And it increased fairly quickly.  After Sunday's run, I have been icing it consistently, toning down the run volume and mile repeats, and increased my stretching.  But to no avail.

Honestly, I feel pretty stupid and wonder if this could have been avoided.  Had I kept up with the strength and stretching exercises, I'm sure I wouldn't be sitting here in pain.  I hope I now have learned a lesson, and will keep up with the strength exercises.

To make matters worse, my first race of 2012 is exactly a week from today, the Westport St Patty's Day 4 Mile Run.

Right now, I'm just hoping I can hobble through the 4 mile course, let alone race it.  Rach is also running, and it would be fun to run with her, but I would prefer to let it rip... I foresee lot's of foam rolling, stretching, and icing in my future. Sadly, I'm sure the running will drop off a bit.

So from the looks of it, the 2012 racing season is going to be off to a very slow start (literally).  But hopefully I can get this injury under control and make up for it in other races!

Thanks for reading!