Each year, Lululemon hosts the Seawheeze Half Marathon in Vancouver that is open to approximately 10,000 runners and is regularly oversubscribed. For the first time, Lululemon created a virtual option to accommodate runners around the world who were unable to participate during the live event. For $28, virtual runners registered for the Seawheeze Virtual Half Marathon and agreed to complete a 13.1 mile run in one session between August 17th – 24th all tracked via the fitness tracking app, Strava. Each finisher will also receive this year’s gorgeous medal in the mail! Even though this was the first year Lululemon offered the virtual half marathon option (open to all runners) and it seemed to be extremely popular based on the participation I saw on Strava on only the first day of the virtual half. Some Lululemon stores also organizing local runs for virtual runners to complete their half marathon as a group. My local store’s group run, unfortunately, didn’t work for my schedule, so I headed out solo to complete my mileage. Strava was very easy to use and I was notified via the app and via email that my run was logged and complete. After completing my run, I signed into Strava to see other runners who completed their races. I was blown away by the community’s encouragement and congratulatory messages that continued throughout the day.

You can also read more about the race on my blog: https://medalsandtiaras.wixsite.com/medalsandtiaras/post/the-virtual-run-experience

Overall, I felt Lululemon did a great job navigating virtual runners through the signup process, supporting us digitally by providing timely and detailed instructions, and supported us locally by encouraging stores to organize group runs. Lululemon also provided virtual runners with access to an online shop with Seawheeze specific merchandise. I took off a 'swag' point because the online shop was sold out within minutes! I hope to participate in Vancouver next year, but if I am unable then I will definitely be participating virtually.