http://www.seawheeze.com/
When: Saturday, August, 11th, 2012
Where: Vancouver, BC
Cost to register and what you get: $128 CAD=Total luxury experience, breathtaking views and oh yah…speed shorts from lululemon WHAT…seamless too and special edition. TackleBox training program to get you ready for teh race and…… Entry to the concert which featured, ‘Hey Ocean’ and ‘FUN!’. Unreal.
Route:
Elevation:
My Time:
Chip Time- 1:47:26.9
My Result:
Overall-531st out of 5,892 participants
Gender-269/4757 (bummed that this goes off of the time the race starts rather than chip time).
*Key learning…Start in the correct corral!
Pre-Race:
The day before the race I went completely against my average pre-race routine. Instead of resting and hydrating tons. I toured the lululemon athletica headquarters then spent most the day walking around town and at the run expo in the sun.
Run-Expo:
The run expo started at 8am and I didn’t go till about 2pm. The result was that most of the limited edition gear that was on sale at the expo was sold-out by the time I got there. The sad thing was that a lot of the specialized gear wasn’t for individuals to wear but to make a profit on. It was being sold online not too long after the expo opened.
At the expo they had Davids Tea and Vega both present giving out samples. Popsicles, manicures, pedicures and massages were options for those who were willing to wait in line. My favourite was the dancing bear, hockey players and fish on stilts who were cutting shapes.
Before leaving the expo we all got the airbrushed tattoos that were offered.
Then I wrote on the goal wall before leaving.
Pre-Race Dinner at Cactus Club:
Many runners believe it is important to have a large pasta dinner before they race. I’ve tried this theory in the past and find it is too much for me to eat and leaves me heavy the following day. This time around I split a butternut squash ravioli with shrimp on the top with my friend Kat and a delicious salad too.
Race Gear:
For the race I wore my trusty speed shorts and an energy bra (MY FAVOURITE) with a swiftly racerback. All race clothes from lululemon. My runners were, nike frees that will only see a few more races. I didn’t put my usual Vaseline/Body Glyde on and experienced some chaffing at the base of my bra. As you can see the timing chip has a face on it! It’s none other than Chip Wilson (founder of lululemon), pretty cheeky.
Gear Check Take Away: Always stick to what you know and your usual routine.
Race Experience:
Waiting for the gun to go there was great tunes playing and the excitement was high. The start line had a huge watermelon that we all had to run under.
I started off in a slower corral for the beginning of the race because checking my bag at the expo took much longer than expected. This put me with a lot of runners who were running a slower pace than I planned. I will be sure to start in the correct corral next time so that I”m not stuck behind racers for the first few miles of the race.
The pacers were pace beavers, quite the twist on the pace bunnies. They all had earls and a tail on their head and wore bright yellow (ray) tops. I actually didn’t notice them once the race started because everyone around was in bright outfits. In a normal road race they would’ve stuck out but race day they blended in.
The first few miles of the race I was just trying to weave in and out of runners. Because I haven’t done a half or a full in quite some time I didn’t quite know what pace I wanted to run. I started off at around an 8:30min/mile and really started listening to my body to see how it was feeling. Because it was feeling good I tried to stay under an 8:20min/mile.
Between listening to my body I saw many interesting, intriguing, maybe even odd, and exciting cheer stations/non stations!
The first thing I saw was 3 characters (not sure what kind of characters to be honest) on extremely high bikes passing us on the bridge. They had on shiny costumes that caught your attention. It was like watching an episode of the family guy. I didn’t know if they were part of the race or not. Very random!
There were paddle boarders in Hawaiian get ups at around the 5k. The tide was quite low so they were hard to see but I loved it.
There was a choir in a tree singing, ‘Ain’t no mountain high enough’, drag queens and more.
There were so many things I didn’t even see that I heard about but lululemon kept you entertained majority of the race with something to look at, hear or see.
My favourite cheer station was in Kitsilano, around 10k and it was a huge group of young girls dancing and cheering. It seemed as if there were hundreds of them and it was very motivating after the climb to get to them. It’s where I did some fist pumping.
Just around this time I was getting warm in my swiftly. During the mornings in Vancouver it was cool but as soon as the sun was out and the day grew later and my body warmed up I was getting hot. Decided to run in my sports bra and tuck my swiftly tank into the back of my shorts, with the plan to pass it off to someone I knew at the sideline if spotted.
After running around 10k I was still feeling really good and decided to stick around an 8min/mile pace for the rest of the race. As you can see my pace was jumping all over the place from an 8:24 to a 7:46.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/214006797
As my pace started to pick up I got to run my favourite stretch of the race….The Sea Wall! With the ocean right beside me and mountains in the background I was in pure delight. It was a dream becoming a reality for me and I knew deep in my heart that it solidified my goals to live by the water! The marathon could’ve been loops around that Sea Wall and I would’ve been happy…I wanted to stay there all day.
Around the seawall I wasn’t too clear what part of the wall I should’ve ran on. Some were on the bike lane (inner lane) and many were on the outside walking lane where I was running. Maybe I would’ve cut some time on the inside? I was happy to be on that outside though, closer to the water.
Getting closer to the end I picked up my pace as we all ran through the park to the finish. I wish at this point there were more signs to the amount of distance that was remaining. The race was marked with km signs but not mile markers which was unfortunate. I believe there was an 800m sign but after that I didn’t know when I was hitting the 400m and less. I just picked up my pace to a full stride/sprint the closer I got to the end.
After the seawall there wasn’t many cheer people or stations for the last few km when many runners are excited for that cheering for the final push. Hopefully next year there will be. Overall I was so happy to push hard to that watermelon finish and was smiling bright eyed!
What a cool medal too! It’s a keychain on shoe laces, very resourceful and useful.
Thank-you lululemon for putting on such an exciting event…And just wait, it doesn’t end there!
Part 2 coming soon!!!
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