I’m about to run the SeaWheeze half-marathon. No, really …

Don’t worry, it’s making me laugh too.

We arrived in Vancouver this morning for the SeaWheeze Lululemon half-marathon (my first half as a runner!) after a three-hour delay late last night in Boston followed by an early-morning delay in Toronto that involved us getting off one plane and on to another. Now I feel like I have jet lag, even though I don’t actually have jet lag. Not a good start.

Goodie bag.

Still, nothing like lovely, temperate (wooo) Vancouver and a Lululemon-themed race expo to cheer you up. I’m partially convinced that now the Lulu overlords have cleverly gathered all the fanatics in one place, they are going to round us up and transport us to a remote Canadian compound where we will be forced to power small countries by running on treadmills and performing hot yoga all day long.

Heaven help the person who shows up tomorrow not wearing Lululemon.

… and they were never heard from again …

Anyway, today we picked up our wristbands (instead of bibs), and lined up to get into the expo so we could buy stuff and line up some more to pay for it. We had received our training shorts in the mail a few months back – which of course I used many, many times* – so there wasn’t a SeaWheeze branded T-shirt. That made me a bit sad. I clearly don’t need a T-shirt, but still, sad.

We did, however, each get a pair of flip-flops by Native Shoes that are very cool.

Fish-flops!

The Lulus have clearly put a lot into this event. There was yoga going on outside the convention center, folks giving runners massages, and a dude giving a talk on race nutrition. Tomorrow, we’ll be fed brunch, and then entertained by fun., the band that’s so trendy it needs a period after its name and doesn’t believe in capital letters.

Getting ready for hot yoga.

Massages, and whale watching.

However, there is one thing hanging over all this festiveness.

It’s my fault, but I’m really not ready for this.

So with that in mind, my goals are simple: finish, and run as often as I can. If I do both of those things, I’ll be thrilled.

Wish me luck!

* May not have used them many, many times.