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Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Running. Show all posts

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 23rd 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.

miscellany monday


happy monday everyone! i’ve added my random ramblings to carissa’s miscellany monday party!  check out carissa’s blog here and join in on the fun. 

{one} goals. i saw this post from a friend of mine on facebook and i wanted to share it with all of you. today starts the last six months of the year. it’s time to look back on the last six and evaluate the progress you've made. if you fell short of your goals - don't change your goal.  however, change your plan of action to accomplish the goal and go for it. if you accomplished your goals – good for you! set new goals for further improvement and be better than what you were yesterday!


{two} running shoes. i  finally got a new pair of running shoes this weekend.  i’ve been putting off buying new sneakers for a couple of months now, but i couldn’t hold out any longer.  on friday  i went out for a mid-day run and i got caught in a pretty bad rain storm on my way back home.  i felt like my sneakers were losing steam with each step that i took in the rain.  between getting caught in the rain and my increased running, i decided that it was time to treat myself to a new pair of sneakers for my upcoming race.  i ended up grabbing a pair of brooks ravenna 4 and i’m excited to go out for my first run in them.  do any of you have a favorite pair of running shoes? let me know in the comments.



{three} 4th of july. it’s fourth of july week and i’m looking forward to celebrating with friends and watching the fireworks  over the local river.  What are you guys doing for the fourth?  let me know in the comments. 

miscellany monday


happy monday everyone! i’ve added my random ramblings to carissa’s miscellany monday party!  check out carissa’s blog here and join in on the fun. 

{one} running. so i’ve ramped up my running again because i’m training for the lululemon seawheeze half marathon.  i’m getting very excited for the this race because it will be my first time in vancouver and race organizers have promised the runners an amazing weekend.  i’m pretty impressed with the organization of this race so far.  i received my official race shorts in the mail a couple of weeks ago (*pictured) - aren't they cute?  the race organizers have also sent the runners a pretty detailed training schedule and several videos consisting of yoga and running drills.  i can wait to see what’s in store for us in august.

{two} chia seeds. as i mentioned previously, i’m eating a new food called mila, it has given me more energy to get through a long workday and it has increased my mental clarity and the best part is they send me a check. i recently decided to become an independent distributor of mila because i love the product so much and it’s made a huge difference in my life.  if you want to learn more about what mila is and all of its benefits, please click here.  and if you have a chance, check out the video here from abc about chia seeds.


{three} giveaway time.  i’m super excited to let you know that lisa from respect the shoes is hosting a giveaway for a $50.00 gift card to either anthropologie, j.crew or zara.  check out her blog here for details on how to enter the contest.  this giveaway will end on sunday, june 23rd at 11:59 p.m. est. 

miscellany monday


happy monday everyone! i've been struggling over the past few weeks to find inspiration to update this blog.  i thought my writer's block was just because I've been busy with work, working out/running and my personal life... but i just might be a little burned out.  hopefully this funk will pass soon and i’ll get back to blogging on a regular basis.  i’ve added my random ramblings to carissa’s miscellany monday party!  check out carissa’s blog here and join in on the fun. 

{one} running. this past saturday, i ran in the largest 15k race for the third year in a row – the gate river run.   i didn’t have time to write a full recap about the race, but i wanted to write quickly about some of the race highlights.  the race started promptly at 8:30am, but there were 4 waves to start in order to avoid the congestion all of the runners.  this year there were a total of 15, 569 total finishers, 7409 male finishers and 8160 female finishers.  the weather was picture perfect for a morning race, despite the cool weather when i first woke up.   i wore a long-sleeve shirt over my race shirt, but i removed it before i got to mile three.  the course took us on a scenic route throughout the city where there were tons of fans along the way.  one of my favorite part of this race is getting a ice pop around mile 6 or 7 courtesy of a local family.  there were people handing out mimosas, beer, donut holes and sausages and oranges.  if you didn’t eat breakfast before the race, you could have eaten it there.  this race is infamously known for runners tackling the green monster.  the green monster is also known as the hart bridge.  the last mile of the race took us over the bridge and back to the stadium.  i was pretty happy with my time this year.  my official chip time was 1:30:04.

{two} lululemon. lately, i’ve been going to yoga at my local lululemon store.  did you know that they offered free yoga classes?  i recently discovered this little perk and i thought i would share it with you.  do you have a lululemon in your town?  if you’re not sure, check out the store finder here to find a store in your area and the calendar of events.

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