Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon - Vancouver

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.

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.

Thousands of runners: Photo Credit

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.

Race route and elevation profile.

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.

Summer Race Season

Although it is hard to fathom, running race season is quickly approaching, and I am 5 weeks into my 18 week half marathon training program. This year I will be participating in the Centaur Subaru Half Marathon in the Calgary Marathon on May 26, 2013, as well as the Lululemon SeaWheeze Half Marathon in Vancouver on August 10, 2013.

I participated in the Calgary Marathon last year, and am looking forward to trying a new route in Vancouver. The Lululemon SeaWheeze attracted about 6000 participants last year, and this year I was happy to learn that Ashley and Andrew will also be running the race.

The route through Vancouver is through downtown, and along the seawall in Stanley park. The elevation profile is quite varied, and I suspect it will be a more varied course than the Calgary race route.

Lululemon SeaWheeze Race Route. Photo Credit

SeaWheeze Elevation Profile. Photo Credit

So far, I have covered 103km in training. I expect I will have covered more than 500km by the time August 10th rolls around.

I would have loved to run the Colour Me Rad 5k Run for fun, but I was too slow on the uptake, and registration sold out before I got a chance to put my name in. 

But there's always next year!

2:13:14

My giant finishing medal

I was aiming to run this half marathon in 2:15, and... Drum roll please...

I finished in 2:13:14!

This year I wasn't as nervous as last year. I actually had a pretty good sleep, even though it was shorter than I would have liked. I got up at 4:00am this morning. That probably seems insane, but I don't normally run in the morning, so I needed to convince my body that I was running later in the day. I got up and started hydrating immediately. I did some yoga to loosen up a bit, had breakfast, and had a quick shower. Tom and I were out of the house by 6:15am, and by then the nerves were kicking in.

We arrived on the Stampede grounds at 6:40am. I lined up for the washroom, and made some last minute decisions about my running gear (layering, water bottles, etc.) The start gun started in no time at all.

This was the first time that I ran a full 21km. The furthest I went in training was 18km.

Many people advised me to run slowly after the start gun-- actually go slower than my intended race pace. I can understand how people can take off. There are thousands of people around you trying to get into position, and it seemed like everyone and their dog were passing me in the first three kilometers. But I settled into my pace without any problems.

At about 8km, somewhere on 11th Avenue, Tom was waiting on a street corner to cheer me on. He then cut through the course so he could meet me again on Memorial Drive.

Somewhere around the 12km marker, I decided to break out my sports beans-- jelly beans made for an energy boost. I had trained with these jelly beans, so imagine my surprise when a kilometer later, I experienced some debilitating cramps. I tried to run through them, but I just couldn't handle the pain, so I eventually walked them out. Luckily they went away, and when I started running again they didn't come back. I didn't try eating any more of the jelly beans after that!

Around 15km I saw Tom again on the side of the course. By then I had developed what felt like a blister on the sole of my foot. So when Tom asked, "How are you doing?" I replied, "I HAVE A BLISTER!" And indeed, I have a very large blister. It's strange, because during my 301km of training running, I never had a single blister form. So why now? What was I doing differently? I suspect it was because I ran the majority of the race on the right hand side of the road which was slightly sloped from traffic. But I guess I'll never know.

Around kilometer 17 I saw a man bail on the road. I'm not sure if he tripped, but he fell to the ground and hit the curb. Two ladies pulled him up and asked him if he was okay, but by the time I got anywhere near, he had already started running again. I guess he got away unscathed.

At 18km, I started a chant inside my head, "3.1km, that's nothing, you can do that." And slowly, I ticked off the kilometers to the end of the race.

By kilometer 20, I was considering slowing down to walk again, but I just couldn't let myself. I was so close!

And then, at about 20.5km, I saw a familiar face in the crowd. Billy!

I hate to brag... But seriously, my friends are awesome. I could never hope for a better group of friends. Five of them showed up bright and early on Sunday (apparently they arrived at 8am) bearing personalized signs.

Jeff: Don't Die Amanda

Steve: Making Signs is Hard Too

Ashley: Amanda, Run Like There's a Shoe Sale Ahead!

Billy: Amanda, You Da Bomb!!

Andy also accompanied them, but is not featured in the pictures because he had left to find his sister in the crowd.

Seeing these guys gave me the boost I needed to sprint (okay, semi-sprint) to the finish line.

My friends are awesome. That is all.

Tom and I find each other post-race.

I think this will be my only half marathon this year, but next year I suspect I will run a few more. I think I'd like to do some more training and try to whittle away at my personal best. This was a really great experience for me.

Thanks to everyone who came out and cheered, or supported my fundraising for LINKages Society of Alberta!!!

I'm one happy runner-- except for the blister...

301km

Last year I ran my first 10km road race, as well as a couple shorter 5km road races. I had been running for a few years, but found that it really helped my motivation to have a specific target to run for.

This year I decided to up the ante with a bigger challenge, my first half marathon!

Since the end of March I have been following the half marathon training plan as outlined by John Stanton (the founder of the Running Room), in his book, Running. The program was 18 weeks which I modified into 10 weeks. The program  required five runs a week, which I managed to stick to pretty well, considering all the juggling I had to do with an already busy life!

April 2012 Running Schedule

May 2012 Running Schedule

This training program has culminated in a total of 301km of running in the last 10 weeks. I will knock off an additional 4km today, and end with the final 21.1km in the half marathon at the Calgary Marathon tomorrow morning. Weather looks like it's going to hold. My iPod is charged and loaded with my favorite songs, my GPS watch is updated and ready to go.  I have raised $675 (90% of my fundraising goal) for LINKages Society of Alberta, and hope that I will hit 100% by the end of the weekend.

I am nervous, but not nearly as much as I was last year. I am hoping to run this half marathon in 2:15, which I think is a reasonable goal.

So please, think good thoughts for me!