August 12, 2017
1 – Vancouver, British Columbia
2 – Lululemon
3 – Yoga
4 – Running
What’s not to love?? added bonus of it being Canada’s 150th Anniversary that year.
Another one of my loves… is running half marathons. I enjoy every part about running these races…the training part, the traveling part, the expo part, the free stuff part, the getting the medal part and the beer garden part.
Yes, you read it right. This race is hosted by Lululemon. Their flagship store is in Vancouver and this race has been a yearly event for quite some time, so I found it was very well organized and festive, with a ton of runners participating in events all weekend including yoga sessions at the packet pickup and exclusive access to Lululemon sales, (if you were willing to stand in line that is)…
The original plan was for 4 of us to sign up for the race and make a weekend of it. Well…5 minutes before registration was set to open, I was online, and had the registration website open and was hitting refresh every 10 seconds (like a teenie bopper trying to get N’Sync tickets). With a few glitches I got my registration confirmation, unbeknownst to me, I was the only one of the four of us to get in as it literally sold out in 15 minutes. Check the festivities out…registration and FYI as of 2018 the race registration has become a lottery system…(which is better in my opinion) and also already closed…
Since I was going solo, I opted for the hostel route for this trip, rather than a hotel. The SAMESUN is located in downtown Vancouver, 1018 Granville St. to be exact. It was a quick and easy ride on the metro from the airport. If you can get past the social eye opener walking down the street towards the hostel, it’s a great place to stay when in Vancouver. This stretch of Vancouver is probably one of the least prettiest as it’s trash ridden and homeless of all ages sprawled in walkways and store/bar fronts. It’s quite sad to see. I was on an ass-crack of dawn flight so arrived crazy early to check into my 4 bed hostel room, so I quickly stored my stuff, freshened up and joined the Bowen Island day trip.
The Samesun hostel is a great place to meet people with the same travel passion that I share. The daily activities were more than affordable and a great way to spend the day. I did the Thursday, Friday and Saturday activities.
Bowen Island Daytrip
– where it’s legal to hitchhike and advertised as such..
Lynn Canyon Hike
– bus ride to North Vancouver to hike in the lucious forest and dip my toes in some glacial waters.
Mural Festival
– cancelled through the hostel, but Lyn and I decided to attempt to go anyways. We hopped onto the metro and started walking around the vicinity of where it was supposed to be, luckily we meandered onto the right street.
Had to make note of this visit to Japadog – the famous Japanese hotdog stand now with a stand alone restaurant just off of Robson. Hot Dogs with some asian flavors…yummy in my tummy.
It’s not everyday you meet another lovely gal named Olivia/Liv, from England. Also, Lyn and Emma who are on lengthy travel journeys that I am quite envious of. These fantastic women are following their hearts and exploring the world.
The Race
– Thankfully the hostel was a short 10 minute job to the start line. I couldn’t have planned this any better. I jogged to the start line for the early morning start at 7am. Thousands of runners organized into corrals anxiously awaiting the start of the race.
Lululemon put on a great race and it was followed by a great concert in the park. Shuttled in and out via buses. Tons of good eats and activities like axe throwing to entertain you until the sun went down.
This was probably one of the prettiest races I’ve ever done with parts running through the city, along the waterfront and through the beautiful Stanley Park. It was well organized and convenient in the beautiful city of Vancouver. I highly recommend this race, if you can get in that is..
Adventuresbyliv 