I have to start by saying that Lululemon and every single volunteer, entertainer, traffic director, water bottle pickeruper etc did a phenomenal job yesterday making it an event to remember. It was so well orchestrated and organized that there were very few hiccups. The energy of the even yesterday simply cannot be replicated by any other race and it was so exciting to see all of the lululemon style surprises around every corner. They hired tons of entertainers for the race at almost every 200-400 meters. There were strange clown cyclists, choirs, a group of elderly tai chi practitioners, paddle boarders, dragon boaters, drag queens, mermaids, goofy lululemon staff doing their skits, Specialized Lululemon Clad Cyclists. It was really an interactive love letter to Vancouver and it was neat to see the variety of different entertainers. Lululemon thought of absolutely everything on this course from entertaining your cheer station with bouncy castles, food and activities for the little ones, to cut up fruit and water and gels at every single station, coconut water at the end of the race. The course was very well planned taking advantage of the view at every single point and providing a lot of lovely shade. The bridge and hills where a challenge but I’m really glad they were part of the course. The BMO race I did avoided the bridge and as a result there was a bit of dipsy doodling within the city streets so there wasn’t a view the entire race like there was for the Sea Wheeze. It was an amazing event and I’m so glad that I got to be a part of it.
I ended up running this race a lot slower then I did my BMO half but I really expected that and was just wanting to make it across ‘around 3 hours’ and just have fun. I ended up not training very much for this one and pretty much stopped running in June so the result was a very painful last 4 miles. At 8 miles of this race I was ahead of the game and had I been able to keep up that pace I would have bettered my BMO time. Unfortunately my lack of training coupled with wearing minimal shoes with no cushioning meant my feet were in a lot of pain at that point and I could not run for more then a few minute spurts. I basically walked from mile 8 to mile 11 where I met up with Lululemon Addict (we had started the race together and then separated) and she was feeling so good and was so focused that she pushed me along those last few miles and cracked the whip on me a few times. once close to the finish line the lovely eductators were madly clanging the cow bells for me (so much appreciated) and cheering me on across the finish line and that really helped me to power thru the pain. I also really liked that fruits were offered at each of the stations (BMO didn’t do that) because I felt the orange slices did more for me then my gels did. After the race I took one look at where I had to go for the catered breakfast and my feet just refused to walk over. I’m glad I didn’t attempt it because as it turns out breakfast was finished at that point so it would have been a waisted painful walk over. I really wasn’t actually hungry for food anyways, I desperately wanted a sugary iced Starbucks drink so I took about 40 minutes to hobble the 600 meters to the nearest starbucks, stopping and resting my feet and collapsing in a heap every 2 feet. I was sure at that point that there would be no way I’d be able to make it back downtown for the concert in three hours but when I got home (had an an hour and a half to rest) I soaked myself in an epsom salt bath (painfully discovering that I had a chafing situation and two severely damaged toe nails) and downed some advil, ate a yogurt and then decided I really didn’t want to miss the concert so I put on my cushy Native Flip Flops and drove back.
The concert was so amazing. It was so hot out and the venue (Jack Pool Plaza where our olympic torch is) was absolutely beautiful. The stage was made so that you could see the view of Vancouver as the backdrop and as the band Fun played you could see the cruise ships slowly drifting past while huge dragonflies buzzed around above us. I don’t know how lululemon managed to have Vancouver so ‘on’ just like all of the entertainers where but Vancouver showed it’s very best this weekend and played along with lovely wether and nicely timed cruise ships and float planes.
It was so lovely to meet so many travelers this weekend from all over the US and I’m so glad you all came out and created the amazing energy of excitement.
On the viaduct there were a couple of these cyclists driving back and forth. It was so synchronized and weird. Loved it!
At this cheer station there was a blow up mountie, beaver, bear and eagle. Just after this was the group of Tai Chi practitioners.
Paddle boaters in costumes
I met this guy, Dave Mari who seems to be in every single race album I’ve ever seen online. I think he’s part of a group called marathon maniacs and he wears his paul frank tee shirts to every race and photographs people. Really cool guy and it turned out we had a friend in common.
Tons of water. No shortage. The first water station had temporarily run out of cups so they were refilling peoples hydration packs and handing out 1lt bottles. None of the other stations had run out of cups and by the time we circled back the station was refilled.
Ivivva cheer station decked out in Power Purple
The GEC building had educators wearing Ray scaling the building in groups of three. That was pretty cool!!
The view entering into Stanley Park
Mermaid Cheer Station
The SeaWheeze Half Marathon Medal
The medal is removable and can be used as a key chain or zipper pull on a bag, the ribbon is shoes laces with the SeaWheeze colors and SeaWheeze written on it.
The concert venue. I wish I could have taken more pictures but at this point my phone was almost totally out of battery power.
Video clip of the concert
A group yoga session
These are some of the pictures taken by Lululemon and on their website
Chip!!! I never saw Chip and would have loved to have met him.
These ladies where my favorite of all the cheer stations. They looked amazing!
Could she be any more adorable??? There was also a dad with a small toddler in a stroller holding a sign that said “hurry up mommy, my diaper needs changing”.
