It was the day Lululemon fanatics were waiting for. The day when Lululemon held their first ever US race. And it was in my city!
I was super excited when I heard the race was coming to SD. Sean & I were on vacation in Banff when it was time to register & waited at the hotel to register right when it opened.
I even told my boss/co-worker, R.J. about it and he signed up for his first 10k!
When they announced that they were looking for volunteers I signed up for packet pick-up on the first day at UTC. It was a blast, I met a bunch of awesome people and helped get runners their bibs & shirts.
On Saturday, we ran Revel Big Bear (recap here) and then drove home to rest & recover before the race the next day.
The race was in downtown San Diego starting at Shelter Island and finishing at Waterfront Park. We got there really early so that we wouldn’t have to pay for parking & so that we would get there before the buses got crazy.
Well we got there really early, like over an hour before the race started, oops! But we weren’t the first ones, we ran into a bunch of our friends. It was fun chatting with everyone but it was cold! The wind coming off the water was quite chilly.
We did some group photos with our We Run Social friends and then we were heading to the start line.
We jumped in to the corrals just as the sun was coming up. It was gorgeous.
As usual Lulu always gets the details, they had a boat with Lululemon flags on it at the start.
We were a little bit behind the 1 hour pace group, and ended up starting in the second wave.
It was a bit crowded as we got started so I was kind of weaving in and out for the first half mile or so until I got settled in.
The energy was amazing, that’s probably one of the best things about a Lululemon race. Everyone is so happy. There were cheer stations, bands, spin bikes, hula dancers and donuts at the finish!
The course is similar to part of AFC Half but the part before the huge climb lol so it’s really nice and flat which I loved. Especially since my calf was still bothering me from the day before.
We got to about mile 3ish and I saw R.J. on the other side, he had started a bit ahead of us so I was like hum… maybe I can catch him. So I tried. I figured if I could catch him, maybe I could slow down, LOL.
So I just kept moving along, smiling the whole way, enjoying all the cheer stations, seeing friends.
Around mile 5 Sean caught up with me and we ran in to the finish. I was really starting to feel the race from the day before but I was still moving.
When we got a little closer to the finish, I gave Sean my phone and was like you go ahead and finish before me so you can get a finish photo of me!
And just like that I was at the finish line! 2 races, 19.3 miles in 2 days. It doesn’t seem like a lot but it was a lot for me since I’ve not been running that much lately.
We ran into R.J. after we crossed the finish line & he did so awesome, under 60 minutes! I’m so proud of him & he even signed up for his first half marathon in February!!
The finish line party was pretty sweet. Awesome medals, donuts, saje wellness, photo ops, drop bags & yoga. It was a really awesome morning.
Oh, yeah and about the swag. We all got white swiftly tanks, medals, donuts, Saje Wellness Runner Rewards (if you stopped by the Saje store at UTC) and they had gear for sale at the end of the race. The line was really long so I skipped but I heard it was just a few pieces and you would have to go to the mall to have it screen printed (I guess so they didn’t make a ton of gear that didn’t sell).
Lululemon put on a great day & I’m glad I had the opportunity to run. I’m looking forward to next year!
