Second half marathon of 2013, completed! I am happy to report I ran my third half marathon at a personal best of 2:05:10, a six minute improvement over the half I ran at the end of May.
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Starting line: Photo Credit
This time Tom and I travelled to Vancouver to meet up with Andrew and run with 10000 other runners in the Lululemon Seawheeze Half Marathon. Ashley was supposed to run in the race as well, but the flooding in June caused the Ride to Conquer Cancer to be postponed to the same weekend, so Tom ran in Ashley's place.
I admit I was disappointed that Ashley wouldn't be joining team Greig in Vancouver. For the last three summers the four of us have done an annual hike. A hike wasn't possible this year, but the race weekend would have served as a satisfactory substitute. Nevertheless, Tom and I are proud and happy for Ashley to be participating in the ride-- a particularly meaningful event for her this year.
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Lululemon knows how to put on a good party, but good gad do they have ridiculous rules about race package transfer. Essentially, their policy is no refunds, and no package transfers. Which... Seems unreasonable when you pay $128 for a spot in the race! For example, Ashley couldn't run in the race because of her ride-- but she wasn't allowed to transfer her package to Thomas. Something about liability (blah blah blah). But... Couldn't the new runner sign a waiver like the original runner did? Wouldn't that get rid of all your liability problems? Just sayin'...
But never fear! We bent the rules, and Tom ran in Ashley's place.
I don't know Vancouver too well, so I was pretty turned around during most of the race. But I do know that we ran past BC place, over the Burrard Street Bridge, and around the seawall in Stanley Park. It was a beautiful course, and there were hundreds of spectators that came out to cheer at various cheering stations around the route. There were mounties on stilts, carnival performers, cheerleaders, and even transvestites strutting their stuff! Instead of pace bunnies, there were pace "beavers," and there was a brunch of muffins, waffles, tiny quiches and fruit at the end of the race.
I learned that Vega sports drink (a clean, plant-based nutrition supplement) is disgusting (I grabbed it by accident thinking it was water at one of the hydration stations). I spat it out and ditched the rest of it (and did NOT make that mistake again).
SeaWheeze 2013 Finishers!
By the end of the 21.1km, I was ready to stop running-- but I felt great! I found Andrew and Tom without too much difficulty, and we gobbled down some brunch before heading back to the hotel for a much needed nap.
I'm not sure what my future running plans will include, but the half marathon course has not seen the last of me! But for now... Much more rest.
Thanks for posting this Amanda! Out of curiosity, how did you get around the rule about transfers? I'm about to have the same problem!
ReplyDeleteHey when your friend ran in place of your other friend, could he get into the seawheeze store running in the other persons place? What did he have to show to get her wristband on his wrist? We are trying to get one of my gfs to run under someone else's name but we want to make sure she can get into the store and run etc with no problems. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSorry! I've had a couple questions about this. The year that we ran, in the depths of the Seawheeze website (it was very difficult to find), there was a form that you could print off and get signed that gave someone else permission to pick up your package. My sister-in-law filled out the form and gave my husband "permission" to pick up the package for her. I don't know if you are still able to do that, but that is how he ran with her bib number.
ReplyDelete