Moody Girl Runs: SeaWheeze Half Marathon Race Recap

There aren’t too many races that will make me stop what I’m doing to sign up and register for a race, but this one gets me every time.

The 2014 Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon took place on Saturday, August 23^rd Vancouver, BC.  This is the second year in a row that I ran this race and unlike last year, I’m finally getting around to sharing my race recap.  This race was extra special to me because my mom came along for the fun to complete her very first half marathon.  She did an awesome job and I’m so proud of her – Go Mom!  My dear friend, M, my mom and I arrived in Vancouver a couple days before the race.  As soon as we got settled in, we could feel the energy for this event throughout the city.  It was pretty easy to spot the SeaWheeze runners because they were dressed in full Lululemon gear wandering the streets of Vancouver. 

PRE-RACE EXPO

On Friday morning, we arrived at the Vancouver Convention Center around 10:00am to find a long line stretched halfway around the building. Luckily, there were two separate lines for both the race packet pickup and the special SeaWheeze Showcase Store. (This is where Lululemon sells a line of SeaWheeze-branded clothes, which exclusively made for the race.)   We decided to let the line to the store die down a little and went to pick up our race packets first since there was a shorter line.  The packet pickup moved pretty quickly.  Unfortunately, we made the mistake of not getting to the convention center earlier in the day, because the store was a complete zoo by the time we got in.  We waited in the store line for about 45 minutes and there was hardly anything left.  

Workers were removing empty racks and shelves throughout the room as dozens of women buzzed around trying to find their sizes.  It was very clear that they were not going to restock anything at this point.  I grabbed a bunch of clothes in my size so I could try them on.  Luckily I was able to find a few things in my size that were placed on wrong racks, so I was pretty happy about that.  However, there were a lot of people that weren’t so lucky.  After a few hours, the only sizes left in the store were size 2s and 4s and eventually they sold out everything by the early afternoon.  Normally, the showcase store is opened on both Friday and Saturday, but they officially ran out of merchandise and closed up early on Friday.  If you want to see what so many people missed out on, check out Lululemon Addict's blog (here) for most of the merchandise sold.

We grabbed a few snacks at the pre-race expo outside of the convention center.  The pre-race expo also included hair braiding, manicures, spray-on tattoos, cotton candy and yoga.  The festivities went on all day, but we decided to skip out on some of the fun.  We grabbed lunch at nearby restaurant and bought tickets for a bus tour around the entire city.  The weather was gorgeous during the whole weekend and despite missing both the nooner and sunset yoga sessions, I’d say that Lululemon did an excellent job on the pre-race expo this year.

RACE DAY

The morning of the race, we were pretty relaxed and quiet in our hotel. We woke up around 5:15am so we would have enough time to get ready.  I ate a cup of yogurt and a SimplyProtein® Bar (which kept me full during the whole race).  Our hotel was about a 10-minute walk from the race start line so we decided to head down to make it for the Sunrise Warm-Up stretch. However, we thought it started at 6:30am and we ended up missing the whole thing.  We did our own warm up and stretch after I dropped of my bag at the gear check.  We started to make our way to the corrals around 6:50am.

I didn’t have a major goal in mind for this race considering I didn’t train as hard as know I should have.  My main goal was to beat my time from last year, which was 2:16.  M and my mom didn’t have a goal in mind either so we decided to line up in the 2:30 corral.  The race started promptly at 7:00am and I finally started to get a little nervous.  We waited for about 30 minutes before we got started because of all of the groups of waves before us.  There were so many people waiting to run.  Lululemon capped this race at 10,015 people this year.  I’m not sure how many people actually ran the race, but this was the largest half marathon that I’ve ever participated in. 

When it was finally our turn, I wished my mom and M good luck and I took off.  I wanted to find my pace and move away from the crowd of people as quickly as possible.  The course worked its way quickly through downtown, over the Dunsmuir Viaduct into a small part of Chinatown before getting to False Creek.  Immediately, there were all kinds of entertainers and cheer stations along the way.  I typically don’t take pictures while I’m running, but I’m really wishing that I had. 

We eventually worked our way over to the Burrard Street Bridge and crossed into Kitsilano and returned back on the Burrard Street Bridge.  It was a real treat to see Lululemon Corporate offices along the way.  Shortly after we headed back into the city, we moved our way towards the Sea Wall and I tried to stay focused from there to the end of the race.  I had already passed the 2:30 and 2:20 pacers, so my goal was to either catch up to the 2:10 pacers or not let the 2:20 pacers pass me. 

I eventually crossed the finish line with a time of 2:11 and I couldn’t be any happier.  I got an awesome medal and grabbed some water to cool down and stretch my legs.  I’m still trying to figure out what the medal is (if anybody knows what it is, please comment below).  I didn’t leave the finish line area because I wanted be there to watch my mom and my friend M finish the race.  I was so excited to see my mom cross the last mat.  She was so happy and proud of herself.  She really worked hard for this race and now she knows that she can do it again if she had to.  She had so much fun and she’s still talking about it to her friends.  I have a feeling that she’ll be signing up for more races in the near future. 

After my mom and M finished, we all made our way through the finish chute to get some food from the Runner’s Brunch.  The volunteers clipped on a small bag of roll-on essential oils from Saje Natural Wellness, handed us a bottle of Whistler Water, a bottle of Zico coconut water, and a cold wet washcloth to help cool down from the run. We also got a black Lululemon baseball cap, which was an unexpected bonus.  The Runner’s Brunch was pretty awesome because they served Belgian waffles, blueberry compote, yogurt, fresh oranges, grapes and watermelon, my favorite. 

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to shower and get a little rest before dinner.  We all decided that we needed to reward ourselves with a nice meal and cocktails for all of our efforts.  Last, but not least we took one of the shuttles over to the Sunset Festival at the Brockton Oval in Stanley Park. The evening began with an incredible yoga class led by Eoin Finn.  There was food, wine and beer and even a trapeze swing set up for guests to explore a life as a trapeze artist.  The year’s entertainment was headliner, Capital Cities (check out their newest single “One Minute More”) and opening act, The Colourist.  We listened to The Colourist, but we missed Capital Cities because we got too tired, so we left early.

THOUGHTS

All in all, the SeaWheeze race weekend was an awesome experience and one of the best-organized events that I’ve attended. This was definitely more than a race; it was a yoga, run, party. If you’re looking for a new race to participate in, then I highly recommend the SeaWheeze Half Marathon.  I’m not sure if I’ll be back next year, but I will certainly run this race again in my lifetime. 

Did you run SeaWheeze this year? If so, what were the biggest highlights for you? 

If you are thinking about attending next year, then here are some of the details. SeaWheeze 2015 takes place on Saturday Aug. 15, 2015. Registration is Sept. 10, 2014 at 10:00am PDT.  This race will definitely sell out quickly, so pay attention to the date and time and get ready to run!  Good Luck!

Check out what went down at last weekend’s Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon in this great recap video above.

Race Recap: Breast Cancer Half Marathon

Two weeks ago, I completed a half marathon race during the 26.2 with Donna – The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer in Jacksonville, FL.   I’ve mentioned previously that the mission of the 26.2 with Donna is “to passionately produce world class events to raise funds for ground breaking breast cancer research and empower women living with breast cancer.”  Donna Deegan, a Jacksonville, Florida native and a former news anchor on First Coast News, created the 26.2 with Donna – The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer in 2006.  Donna herself is a three-time breast cancer survivor, who was first diagnosed in 1999 at the age of 38 and again in 2002 and 2007.  She created The Donna Foundation in an effort to raise research dollars and to bring awareness to women who battle breast cancer and to provide help to cancer patients who have difficulty meeting their financial needs.  If you are looking for a race with a positive message and you like to run for a cause, then this is the race for you.  I’m pretty sure that you’ll have as much fun as I did.  Anyways, here a quick recap of my race experience.

The Expo:

Saturday afternoon I headed to the Prime Osborne Convention Center for the 26.2 with Donna Expo and Packet Pickup. I always look forward to any race expo because of all of the various vendors that show up.  I spent about 2 hours at the expo bouncing from booth to booth checking everything out. I bought some deep discounted running t-shirts, a pair of compression sleeves for my legs and some Jelly Belly sports beans for extra energy along the course.  On my way out of the expo, I stumbled upon a booth called Fellow Flowers.  There were 2 warm and friendly ladies selling really cute logo t-shirts in various colors and bright cloth-like flowers that you can wear in your hair.  The booth was buzzing with so many women, so I had to check it out.  I almost left the expo at that time because I got a call from my BF, but I’m glad that I didn’t.  I needed up getting myself a t-shirt and something for my mom who’s birthday is coming up.  If you have chance, check out their website for some running inspiration and shopping.  So, the best part of me stumbling on this booth was that finally I got to meet Donna Deegan in person.  She just happened to be stopping by the booth to meet the two ladies at the booth.  I have to say that meeting Donna was the highlight of the race weekend.  She was super sweet and took a bunch of photos with other admirers and running enthusiasts.

After I left the expo, I met up with some friends for lunch and then I went home to rest up for the next day.  I gathered all of my running gear and laid everything out for easy access and a quick change in the morning.  I had a quick pasta dinner and decided that I needed go to bed pretty early since I had to wake up at 4:30am.

The Race:

When the alarm when off at 4:30am on Sunday morning I hit the snooze button a few times.  No matter how early I go to bed, getting up at 4:30am is never easy.  Once I finally woke up, I toasted two waffles added some peanut butter on them and got dressed pretty quickly.  I was determined to be on the road by 5:30am.  I walked out the door with my waffles in hand along with a cup full of Naked Green Machine smoothie drink (my favorite).  When I got on the road, I was pretty excited because there appeared to be no traffic.   I thought to myself, I love it when things work out the way I planned out in my head.  My reflection was short lived by the time I got to Jacksonville Beach.  As soon as I got off of Butler Blvd and turned onto A1A, I saw the traffic that everyone warned me about at the expo.  Apparently everyone got the same memo to leave early because I sat in traffic for the next hour.  Luckily, I left early enough that I didn’t think I was going to be late since the race was scheduled to start at 7:30am, but I was still a little nervous. 

While I sat in traffic, two of my friends called to let me know they were just getting to the traffic. At that point, I figured that they were going to be late for the race.  After fighting my way to merge from 2 lanes into 1, I was finally able to park.  I still had about an hour to spare until I made a quick visit to the long lines of porta potties.  My friends called again to give me an update of their location, but they were still pretty far away and still sitting in heavy traffic.  I made my way to the corrals and lined up while constantly keeping an eye out for my friends.  At 7:15am, I started to stretch and warm up for the race and chatted with some ladies from South Carolina.  Finally after a long wait, the race officials made an announcement that they were pushing the start time to 7:45am to allow for the people sitting in traffic to get parked and settled at the start line.   My friends eventually made it to the start line around 7:45am and snuck into the corral with me.  A few minutes later, the race officials made another quick announcement that the race was going to start promptly at 8:00am.  Thankfully, the race started exactly at 8:00am and we were finally off and running!

Unfortunately, I signed up for the race late, so I started in the third corral. Which was a little further back than I would have liked to start. With that being said, I had to fight my way through a large crowd for the first couple of miles.  We immediately started running through neighborhoods of fantastic and supportive Jacksonville Beach locals.  There were so many local folks that stood out in the cold to hand out bottles of water and Gatorade, various foods or simply to cheer us on with signs, banners and well wishes. I definitely felt their energy.  Unfortunately, after running about 3 miles, a friend of mine decided that she needed to stop to go to the bathroom at the one and only porta potty in sight.  Normally, I don’t stop running unless it’s an emergency or I’m in pain, but I made an exception (I’m still trying to figure out why I did during this race, but oh well). Our little detour set me back about 7-8 minutes because the line for this one porta potty was pretty long.  After our little detour, we ran another 2 miles until my friend mentioned that she needed to walk and I let her walk by herself.  I was already on a mission to make up some lost time, so I kept on running.

 

When I made it to the beach around mile 7, I ate some of my sports beans and one GU energy gel that someone handed me along to way.  I really tried to pick up my speed to make up some time, but my body was slowing down.  By the time I made it to the bridge towards the finish line, I was pretty much spent and in a little pain.  I used all of my energy to run the last 3 miles of the race over a couple of bridges.  All I thought about was getting to the top of the bridge because the finish line is pretty close.  I just focused my mind on the finish line and focused on finishing.  I was pretty happy when I finished, but a little annoyed with myself with my time.  This race just gives me room to improve on my next half marathon and really beat my time for this race next year.

My Stats:

There were 4,250 total race finishers for the half marathon and 3,100 female finishers.   My official chip time was 2:17:17 (which isn’t great, but I’ll take it given my circumstances).  Have any of you competed in a 5k or a half marathon lately?  Do you have a race that’s coming up that you are excited about? Let me know in the comments?