Package Pickup / Showcase Store

There is a wristband system at SeaWheeze and you are supposed to register in advance for when you want to pick up your package, as well as shop the Showcase Store. I used to think the shopping was a tad ridiculous, because what could they possibly be selling that has people camping out in the street overnight? However, I got the chance to shop last year with some friends, and I totally get it now. It’s actually quite fun, there’s tons of cute and limited edition merch being sold, as well as the very coveted reflective gear.

The organization for the reflective gear was absolutely ridiculous. In my experience, all you had to do was show up early, and then head straight to the reflective merchandise booth. This year, they handed out cards with specific names on it in the lineup. And they would call out specific card names throughout the morning. The premise was to allow shoppers to browse at other merchandise, instead of waiting in line for reflective gear and missing out on the other items throughout the convention center. It just didn’t make sense in my opinion, but I’m grateful for my loving husband for enduring that ordeal and picking up some cute things for us.

Package pickup was pretty straight forward after the shop. So nothing much to really write about. Justin came back to the hotel and we went for breakfast.

We had Kintaro ramen for dinner, and then went to Thierry for dessert. They didn’t have mille feuille the last time I was there, and we were really happy to be able to pick some up this time. There weren’t any places to sit inside or on the Thierry patio so we headed back to the hotel to eat our treats.

Race Morning

We stayed at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. And it is my new favourite hotel in downtown. It’s dog-friendly and much closer to all the activities than the Sheraton. The race started at 7am, and we rolled out of bed around 5:15-5:30am to have some coffee. The weather was overcast, so Justin wore a Lululemon shirt, his SeaWheeze race shorts, Salomon hydration vest for water and to carry his phone, and ProCompression socks. We walked over to the start line, and puttered around a little bit. We saw our friends Richard and company, he and his/our friend Carmen is the whole reason why we got into SeaWheeze. And then after they headed off on their way, Justin got into the corral.

I decided that I wanted to be able to take some pictures of Justin on the course just after the start. So I headed past the start line arches and towards Hastings and Burrard. There was a bunch of huge construction trucks that lined the right side of the course, and I just realized as I’m writing this that I think it was set up that way for crowd safety — which I really appreciate.

Since we got up so early, I headed back to the hotel after the race start to take the doggos out and feed them breakfast. I assumed the hotel had hotel bikes and I had this great plan that I would be able to use one to go catch Justin on Burrard Bridge. When I headed down to the Concierge, they said they had no bikes left so walking it was.

When I checked the race tracker within the Lululemon app, I saw that Justin was making incredible time so I booked it down to Burrard Bridge. I cheered for a bit, and when I checked the app again, it appeared that Justin had already passed! So I ran down Pacific, cut down Denman to hopefully catch him at the 20km mark. I never ran so fast. When I finally got to my spot and cheered for runners. I realized that there was an error with the map. I was spectating the same people who I saw at Burrard Bridge, and they were not quite elite, but I knew they were pretty fast racers. I even saw a couple people I knew.

Then I realized my error. The race tracker was off! For SOME reason, I believed the race app instead of other trackers we use. Race trackers NEVER work. They’re not accurate, and I really should’ve known better. And I was under the impression that Justin was making killer time. The time it was predicting could be something he could pull off and I believed it. I realized that if I had waited longer at Burrard Bridge, I would have definitely seen Justin coming over. Anyway, I saw my friend Niles, and not too long after I saw Justin. Because of the way the seawall is set up, I actually got to grab a few photos over a few spots.

The finish line wasn’t too far to go, so I told Justin I would meet him around the Convention Center. The nice thing is there are a ton of places for spectators to watch for their racers. Runners then get their medals, and their finisher hats, and proceed up the ramp toward to the Convention Center, where they can grab brunch and head inside for post race activities like massages.

Post Race

The race ends pretty close to the start, which again is awesome because we were staying in the area. We walked right up Burrard street back to the Hotel Vancouver to clean up and get ready to head back home. We had to skip the Sunset Festival because we had other plans that we needed to make. We’ve been to the festival in years past, and they are a blast. Outdoor yoga and a concert is an amazing way to end SeaWheeze. We didn’t believe it for years, until one of our friends convinced us that SeaWheeze was worth the price of entry. And we are so glad we finally listened! We’re definitely going to always put our names in for the SeaWheeze lottery.

We went for our favourite Chinese food in North Vancouver before we left, of course! Ming’s Garden is the best. And that basically wraps up how we did SeaWheeze weekend. We hope you enjoyed this SeaWheeze race recap.

Did you race SeaWheeze 2019? Have you run in other years? What was your experience like?

The post SeaWheeze Race Recap appeared first on The Lifestyle Of Us.

SeaWheeze

SeaWheeze is a race hosted by Lululemon, and it’s not JUST a race but an entire weekend of yoga, running, and partying. As part of registration, you get a pair of exclusive SeaWheeze shorts mailed to you so you can wear them during training. There is a Showcase Store where you can buy exclusive swag. There’s also yoga classes in the days leading up to the race, a bunch of SeaWheeze activities, and then finally the Sunset Festival. We attended the festival in our first year, but since 2018’s event fell in September, the weather was too gross to head to Brockton Oval and do yoga in Stanley Park.

Where to stay

The Sheraton Wall Center is one of the host hotels, and we decided to stay there because they are dog friendly! The hotel is also in a great location close to plenty of restaurants, shopping, and the Robson St Lululemon Store.

Package Pickup

The package pickup went pretty smoothly this year. You got to book your pickup times in advance, so I showed up for my time slot and it was easy breezy. There was still a significant lineup though, so that surprised me a little considering they were touting this whole new package pickup process.

The Showcase Store

Justin and I were arriving in Vancouver at separate times due to our schedules. Since I got in first, I had nothing but time on Friday morning to go check out the The Showcase Store with some friends I had made/met because of SeaWheeze in 2016! It was such a mad house. You had to book your times to shop, and I was able to snag the first slot of the morning. The lineups were still insane when I arrived at the Convention Center at like 6am.

I also got to meet and hang out with Andrea Barber from Full House/Fuller House, since we have mutual friends! I didn’t know who she was until afterwards. Listen, it was like 7am and we’re all a little tired and haggard from waiting in the rain, being forced to walk through a maze of a million stanchions, and then racing or lining up some more to get ourselves whatever we could get our hands on. I had my heart on some matching reflective hats for Justin and I to wear for our next race, the Rock N Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon.

The Race

Race morning was gnarly. It was raining the days leading up to the race, so we knew it was most likely going to be a wet race. It was drizzling all morning but when we showed up to the race start, it was starting to slow. The rain stopped for a while and then it just sprinkled on and off throughout the race. Justin runs much faster than me so we typically start a race together, and then we both run our own paces.

I stopped listening to music a few years ago. I started to practice because you can’t listen to music in triathlons. I also try not to run with music because of safety reasons. And finally it’s also a SeaWheeze race, so typically there is a ton of entertainment on the course so you don’t really want to me running with your earphones.

Since we’ve done this race before, and also run the course a million times outside of SeaWheeze, it was a pretty boring this year. I was grateful for everyone who braved the weather and stayed out to cheer because it was pretty wet and cold, but compared to the previous year when the weather was nice, the difference was night and day. Our friend who didn’t get in was cheering near the 12 mile mark, so I kept an eye out for him and stopped to grab a selfie.

Post Race

The race finishes near the Convention Center. The finish line is on the seawall, and then after getting your medal, you walk up the ramp towards the Convention Center. This year, they handed out hats!! I was beyond thrilled for the hat, and it’s my most favourite race swag to date!

Bearfoot Bistro caters the Finisher’s Brunch, and it was pretty good! The way they organized the lineups was super annoying though. They cut off the line behind us to start a new one, and then the new one ended up going faster than our line. We were hungry and cold, so we weren’t exactly pleased about that. We headed inside the Convention Center with our food, and sat down to eat. They offer massages and physio, but I’m not a speedy finisher so the lineups are always crazy by the time we get in.

Overall, we’d do this race again. We’re going to put our names in for the 2019 lottery, but there’s no guarantee we’ll get in. It’s pretty decent value for the price tag. SeaWheeze is definitely a fun little race-cation.

Check out our 2019 SeaWheeze race recap here!

The post SeaWheeze 2018 Race Recap appeared first on The Lifestyle Of Us.