Seawheeze Half Marathon Race Report

I was excited about this race for MONTHS-billed as the big Lululemon race of the year, complete with yoga and zen like activities all weekend long.  Add in the fact that I was meeting one of my dearest running friends from Texas and I was PUMPED!

Seawheeze weekend started out on Friday with a two hour wait in line to get into the special store that had exclusive Seawheeze Lulu clothes.  Being an ambassador for INKnBURN, I was mainly interested in the clothes that my favorite company doesn't offer, like dresses and everyday wear.  When we finally got into the store, the first thing we noticed was all of the sixes and eights had been picked over rather extensively.  I was still able to score a couple of shirts, a dress, a jacket and a skirt for one of my Cholla Chicks, so overall, I was content with my purchases.  The line for checking out wasn't as bad as the line to get in, but it still took us half an hour to get through it.

After the store experience, we headed to packet pickup.  This line was probably shortest-only taking half an hour or so to get through.  We got our packets and did the "Chip check" on the way out the door to verify our chips were tied to our correct names and residences.  I went back later in the day to get one of the spray on tattoos and had to wait in line another hour and a half.

Race day was the next day.  On my way to meet Kelly and walk to the start, I realized I had accidentally lost my chip.  Thinking to myself that this race has 11,000+ runners and I certainly can't be the only person that misplaced my chip, I went to the "Solutions" desk and they issued me a new chip.  The caviat...?  It would not be tied to my name, so my time would not count.  Greeeeaaaaaat.  $128 CAD race entry, trip to Vancouver and my time won't count.  I tried to shake off my pessimism and focus on the fact that I would be running in fabulous sixty degree weather with amazing scenery.  Kelly and I placed ourselves in the two hour corral, knowing we would hit somewhere around that time.  It took about half an hour for this corral to make it to the starting line.  In the meantime, we had fun people watching.  Turns out several people were standing on their hotel balconies in their skivvies watching the festivities-AWKWARD!

As soon as we got to the start line, the adrenaline kicked in and I took off like a crazy person.  The weather felt great and my muscles were screaming, "Faster!  Faster!"  I averaged 8:20s for the first half of the race-totally on target for a huge PR.  It was then, going over this long, steep bridge, that it hit me that if I PR'd, it wouldn't count.  From that point on, I slowed down and enjoyed the scenery.  They had street performers out in full force, entertaining the runners.  At one point on the Seawall, they had a fake Muscle Beach set up with people lifting weights and spinning on bikes.  There were even mermaids in the water and trendy people with encouraging signs on SUPs.  I forgot my Gu in the hotel, so I tried their energy gel Vega around mile eight and promptly spit it out.  I'm so used to either Gu or solid foods in my long runs that I was not expecting a gooey substance with chunks and it startled me (I think they might have been chia seeds.)

Even with me saying, "eff it", and slowing down dramatically, I still ended up with my third best half time (per my garmin, because my chip didn't count.)  I finished in 2:07:26 and got ushered into the medical tent.  Yes, this genius didn't think about the humidity and left her inhaler back in the States.  I waited around in the medical tent for twenty minutes or so, calming my breathing and waiting for an albuterol treatment as runners much worse off than me got IV's and oxygen masks.  Finally, I got the puffs I needed to be on my way, but they made me wait to observe me for a little while longer.  Not going to lie, it was nerve wracking with so much chaos going on around me-I had no idea that half marathons could affect people this bad!  Finally, I was released.  We went to pick up my drop bag and then headed over to the brunch area.  When we got there, we decided it wasn't worth the line (yes, another line.)  We opted for showering and eating brunch at the Four Seasons.  That was probably the best pancakes and bloody mary I have ever consumed!

I would definitely recommend this race for Lulu fans that want to get away for a cooler race in August who don't mind waiting in lines, but I don't think I will do it again.  I will definitely come back to Vancouver, but I have had my Seawheeze experience and am so glad that I got to spend some time with Kelly!