Friday Favorites #7

I'm just all kinds of excited this Friday. There's so much fun stuff going on - despite me being down for the count all week with a pulled back muscle (boooo), the universe has done plenty to tell me it's sorry and that I'll be up and moving on soon!

1. Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner!
Dude. I scored all over the interwebz this week.

First, this:

I won an entry to Vacation Races' Lake Powell Half! I've wanted to run a VR event for forever, but have never been able to make any of them work, so I am WAY excited that I get to go run this one. It's not until next October, so unfortunately there's lots of waiting time, but squee! Excitement! With that, despite having lived in northern Arizona for three years, I've never actually been to Lake Powell. Double win.

And then the next day, this:

Two more wins! One from Michele's super fun training journal Instagram giveaway (because, you know, I train sometimes), and then even more fun from Carlee's #12DaysofCarleesChristmas giveaways (make sure you mozy on over to Carlee's page and maybe you can win some awesome stuff too!

2. Marathoning
Half marathons are my happy place. After LA this year, I was disappointed because I knew I had trained so much better than just a 6-minute PR. But race day changes everything and a heat index of 95+ doesn't bode well, no matter how hard you've trained.

I'm excited that I officially have two full marathons on the calendar in 2016 -- OC Marathon (May 1, I've been registered for a few weeks now) and, as of Tuesday, the California International Marathon (December 4).

CIM will be a running, girls' birthday weekend for our Ironwoman, Jacky, so we're all pretty stoked about this. So far there are at least four of us going along (Jacky, Monica, Sandy, me) and I'm pretty much giddy already. Let's hope training keeps me that giddy! 

I've got one more full I'm eye-balling in the spring, but more on that later... 

3. Ambassador Frenzy

In case I'm not an ambassdor for enough races (never enough, right?), but I've got some new exciting ones to add to my list! 

ZOOMA Women's Race Series is a small women-run race series that I actually ran in Georgia before they stopped doing their Atlanta event (sad face). It was actually my second half marathon ever! Now they're in Annapolis, Cape Cod, Florida, and have a trail race in Austin. But they're also adding a virtual Love Run race in 2016 to be done on Valentine's Day! Stoked for that and I'll have a discount code soon (registration just opened today, so don't freak out!). 

I'm also excited to be an ambassador for the OC Marathon, and since I'm running the full already anyway, you should be sure to come run with me! Please? I'll need a buddy for 26.2 miles! I don't have a discount code just yet, but you can still register and save some cash, and make sure you mention me for how you heard about this race! 

4. Gift Guides!

Next week, I've got tons of gift guides comin' atcha - books, runner accessories and swag and gear and all things for you yogis, too. My friends and fellow ambassdors Tam, Kasey and Kristen have all provided some really sweet gift lists for when you're most stuck for your fitness friends - we've got you covered! Don't worry!

Super excited about what's coming your way next week. Stay tuned!

Happy Friday! Exciting plans this weekend?