SeaWheeze Half Marathon
SeaWheeze Half Marathon
( 25 reviews )-
Vancouver,
Canada - August
- 13.1 miles/Half Marathon
- Road Race
- Event Website
Jeannine Avelino
Vancouver, CanadaOverall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Check out my full review here: http://everythingbutweddings.ca/2016/08/recap-seawheeze-2016/
Overall I had a great experience running the Seawheeze again. No doubt in my mind, I will be running this again next year. I talked about the course in last year’s recap… this year though, I have a few other observations…
The Showcase Store - Get there early if you want to see the best selection. I waited in line since about 5am and I would do it again. Especially if you want the jackets, by the time I got inside (half an hour after it opened) all the jackets were all snapped up. Remember, they are not on sale, they are all full price but limited edition.
Package Pickup and Festivities - They were very organized and they had a lot of free services for runners including hair braiding, airbrush tattoos, nail polish applications, free samples of cold brew coffee, ice cream, Vega, and much more.
They changed the start and finish lines. - It started along Hastings instead of Cordova and added 2 extra turns before we got going on Dunsmuir. It created a bit of a bottleneck, I think. The finish line was also moved to the seawall. I wasn’t aware of this, but maybe I should’ve looked at the course map more closely. I definitely wasn’t expecting it.
I think the course is 400 meters longer. - OK I finished with 21.5 km without weaving much and turns out, a lot of fellow runners did too. What gives? Did the same thing register on your watch? Let me know in the comments below.
Herding runners at the finish line took way longer than expected. - Runners were led up the ramp next to the convention centre to get to Jack Poole Plaza. There was a lot of slow walking and waiting. As we walked up the ramp we were given our swag one by one. I think this slowed down the process quite a bit. Why not just give us a bag and that was that?
The après-race swag was amazing as usual. - In addition to the fantastic medal, we also received a Lululemon hat, bottled water, Nuun samples (to mix into your bottled water right away), Saje runners’ kits with 2 tubes of oil, a KIND bar, and of course breakfast. Runners got a breakfast sandwich, a tart and some fruit. I was disappointed with mine because I think I was given the vegetarian sandwich by mistake (and it was bland). There was also a bit of confusion when they ran out of sandwiches and redirected us to the other side of the tent. Then they got more sandwiches and started giving them to people in the line up we were at originally, rather than giving them to us (who were there first, but got moved). Not cool to piss off hungry runners.
I think the cheer stations lacked a bit of oomph compared to last year. - It seemed a little flat, I felt like there was more to distract me last year. The viaduct was decorated with big cardboard cutouts of shoes (meh), the drag queens were moved (I didn’t even see them), the mermaids weren’t on the water, the jet pack guy was awesome but couldn’t really read the sign…. My favourite stations were the Ride Cycle Club and VPD stations. Ride’s station doubled in size from last year, which was awesome and the cops had funny signs (“We won’t arrest you for killing it” and “Donut stop running”). At least the Seawheeze’s inflatable start/finish arch actually stayed up this year 😛
Thank you for the Nuun stations. - I ran out of energy drink and I was so glad that Nuun was a sponsor this year. Bring them back!
The Sunset Festival was fun! - Need I say more? Great bands, fun company, and lots of food and booze. Just a little pricey though… $12 for a piece of pizza… hmm