Race Review: Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon (Part 2)

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You can read about the expo and pre-race activities here.

So having a little more to drink than planned the night before, I woke up around 4:00AM and started drinking water, endless amounts of water, despite the fact that I felt a little green...

It must have helped because by the time we got on the road I already felt a lot better. I ate a power bar, not my favorite pre-race food but because we were living out of a suitcase at this point I had to live with it. The drive in to Vancouver went well. Finding parking proved to me more difficult so we ended up having to valet at a hotel. Mind you the cost was only $3 more than parking in the same area.

My mother in law, Cindy, who was with me has only run one other half marathon, the Tinkerbell half back in January. I was very excited that she had also caught the running bug and was ready for another one!

We headed into the convention center where surprisingly there was hardly a line for the rest room unlike outside for the port-a-potties...

We thankfully ran into Nikki and another friend without even having to look for each other! So after a potty break and some organizing our headphones etc. we headed off to the start line. It was really crazy with all the SeaWheeze plaid shorts everywhere, it was definitely the most colorful race I've ever been to.

The start line was pretty exciting. I think the race was much bigger than last year. There were even some fully nude spectators on the balconies of the apartments above. I love seeing all the spectators but maybe with more clothing?...

I think we started a little behind schedule but I wasn't disappointed. Still feeling the effects of "over-hydrating" the night before, I wasn't raring to go run 21.1k. Thankfully the weather was perfect! It was beautifully cool and slightly cloudy. I love the sun as much as the next runner but last year this run was just way TOO hot.

As we ran over the start line I felt good especially thinking about how far I've come from the race last year. A full year of running has left me a lot more confident and strong. We ran over to the viaduct and just like last year, there were these bicycles on stilts, weird but awesome at the same time!

Next, was china town and over to the false creek side of the sea wall. I love running this stretch because it reminds me of where it all began. When I lived in False Creek, that's when I started running, where I first lived with my husband, and when I went to university. Since that time, my life has completely evolved, and here we are moving again.

It was also during the False Creek stretch that we ran into a twitter friend, Kendall! We stopped for some quick sweaty hugs:

She was doing an awesome job volun-CHEERing! Next up, was an incline up to the Burrard bridge, I haven't been doing hill training at all so I felt like jelly all the way up the hill but thankfully these lovely ladies were at the top waiting for us!

 

The Burrard bridge is part of a lot of local races. I wasn't thrilled about having to run over it because it always seems to go on for forever but it wasn't so bad this time. Maybe because the sun wasn't beating down us. After the bridge was a big Lululemon cheer station and water station. With my hydration pack I really didn't need to stop at any water stations (I think I only stopped at one that came up during a walk break).

We ran into Cindy again at this point. She had run straight through and we were doing our usual 10/1 intervals. We continued on and lost her again somewhere around a potty break for Nikki. She told me to continue on but I chose to take a little break because this race for me was a training run and for fun.

And quite honestly, I was just tired.

We continued on knowing all that was left was the sea wall around Stanley Park and then we would be nearing the finish. Last year, this was where everything fell apart, the sea wall went on and on and on. But this year with the weather being cooler, and after having run around Stanley Park so many times in the past year during different races, it went just fine. When we started weaving our way out of the park I was worried we had missed another friend who was volunteering and then all of the sudden, there she was!

 



The stretch between here and the finish line was the hardest for me this time around. I was tired and ready to be done. Even though this race had the feel of "just a training run", the finish line still seemed to take forever. Though cooler, it was starting to get quite muggy so when we finally crossed I was ecstatic to see that cool cloths were waiting for us. There was also a sage aromatherapy set which they attached to our metals with a clip as well as a set of skull candy headphones.

The medals were wood and inside they have a little place for what looks like a photo, we asked around with the volunteers if they were taking photos to put in there but they didn't really know anything. I just found out the other day that there were photo booth's at the finish line! I wish I had known... :( Overall it seemed like the volunteers were uninformed.

The race went really well considering I was just using it as a training run. We came in at 2:25:59. I also got to run another race with Nikki and I'm hoping maybe Lululemon will be a tradition for us! There were minor issues this year with the race organization but I have to say it was much better than last year.