The Lululemon Seawheeze Half Marathon was held on Saturday, August 13, 2016 this year. This race is held in Vancouver BC Canada, so was a destination race for me and my wife (we live in Minnesota).

Registration:
Registration for this half marathon cost CA $128 (with the conversion rate at the time it cost me US $97.93). This online registration took place in mid September 2015 and each year it sells out faster than the last. This year I believe it sold out in 30 minutes, so you need to be at your computer and ready to register right when it opens up.

Swag:
Personally I think for the cost of entry, the swag you receive can’t be beat. Instead of a technical finisher shirt at the end of the race, you are mailed a pair of Lululemon running shorts in advance of the training time needed to run this race so that you can use them while training. The shorts this year were mailed out at the beginning of May 2016 for the race in August 2016.

In addition to these running shorts, you also receive additional swag at the race packet pickup the day prior to the race. This year I received a Seawheeze gym bag (which was also used as the bag drop bag), a pair of sunglasses, a tube of Nuun, and a Seawheeze water bottle. Again, for the price of entry, you can’t beat the amount of swag you receive.

Expo:
The Seawheeze half marathon doesn’t have the typical expo that you would think it would. There are no venders selling anything at this race. Instead there is a showcase store open the day before the race (available only to runners for the first 4 hours and then open to the public after that). This showcase store features Lululemon merchandise that is specific to the Seawheeze event. If you like Lululemon apparel, then this is the place to buy some additional gear that no one else will have outside of people attending this event.

In addition to this showcase store, there is also vendors present from 7am to 8pm the Friday prior to the Saturday race, but everything there is free. Some of the vendors present for this included nuun, KIND, Clearly (the company they partnered with to provide the sunglasses we received), JJ Bean (a cold press coffee), Vega, Qoola, Saje Wellness, and others I am sure I am forgetting. In addition to these, they were providing free haircuts/beard trims for guys (of course I partook in this), hair styling and nails painted for the ladies, airbrushed Seawheeze designed tattoos, and Yoga classes (classes were at 9am, noon, and 7pm).

Course:
This is a very nice scenic course. the first few miles are working your way out of town, then you head past the Lululemon headquarters and make your way down to the Vancouver Seawall for basically the remainder of the run, with a short time spent running through Stanley Park. To me the weather seemed hot and I was completely in the sun the entire time I was on the seawall, but can’t really complain about nice weather. Nuun was at the aid stations throughout the course which was amazing to have. Since this course was marked in kilometers instead of miles I was never really sure where the next aid station would be (I need to work on my conversion from miles to kilometers I guess), but there was definitely plenty of aid stations on the course. There were also many many cheering stations set up throughout the course. I am one who always runs with headphones on to take my mind off of the run, but for this race I didn’t have them turned on beyond the first 0.5 miles. There was so much going on and people cheering us on throughout the entire course that I felt I would be missing out on all the action if I listed to my headphones.

The only down fall to this course was that in order to run past the Lululemon headquarters you have to basically do an out and back route that has you at one point running down the right side of the street and then you completely turn around and start running back along the left side of the road. I know that it is important to run by the headquarters, so I guess this is understandable, just not a typical route you would find on a half marathon course.

Medal:
I really liked this year’s medals. The medal provided is kept a secret until you see it when you cross the finish line, which I like. This keeps you looking forward to seeing it when you cross that line. The medal this year was heavy duty, large, and kept with the theme of this year’s race “Agents of Change”. The outside of the medal also had a secret code going all the way around it for you to figure out.

Post Race:
After crossing the finish line you have to continue walking (uphill) to get to the post race food, but the upside to this walk was additional swag. We were first provided with smart water and a cold wash cloth, then a Lululemon bag to put stuff in, then additional samples from Saje, KIND, nuun, Vega, and then a Seawheeze hat. Again, how can you beat the amount of stuff provided for the cost to register for the race!!

The post race food was a breakfast sandwich, grapes, and a cherry tart. All of this was very good and filling! There was also a message and chiropractor room set up for runners. The wait for this was about 30 minutes.

Sunset Festival:
Instead of having a celebration right after the race, Lululemon puts on a sunset yoga class and concert in Stanley Park that night (again, entry to this was covered by your registration to the race). This year there were 3 performers at this concert. Openers were ‘Youngblood’ and ‘Dear Rogue’ with the headliner being ‘Chromeo’. Stanley Brewing Company even created a beer for the Seawheeze festival which was sold there in additional to other beer options of theirs. There were also vendors selling merchandise here and food vendors selling food. Such a great end to the race day!

Overall:
I really enjoyed this race for all that it had to offer. This included the showcase store, full day of activities the day prior to the race, a very nice scenic course to run, all the fan support cheering you on, nuun at the aid stations, sunset festival, and of course the swag.

To caveat, since I live in Minnesota, I also had to pay for the flight to Vancouver and the cost of the hotel room for the weekend, which made this race a lot more expensive than any other race I will do this year. Since my wife and I used this as a vacation as well as a race it was well worth the cost, but I will have to keep this in mind when considering running this race again next year.