The Ultimate 30th Birthday Blog Giveaway

Anne of Green Gables was pretty much one of my favorite series growing up, and when a friend posted this quotation on Instagram this morning, I was instantly taken back to remembering reading the first book on the plane to Hungary one year as a kid. Sigh. 

It's October, people!

How did that happen?

The cool thing about October is that it starts with my birthday - that's right, today's the day, folks! 

New month

New goals

New decade

New age group

Crazy talk. Since I started running nearly four years ago, I've been in the same age group, so while it was inevitable, it certainly hit me this morning that I've got a race on Sunday and my first time in a new age group! Excitement - we'll see how speedy some of these 30-year-olds are! 

But meanwhile, the best thing about this birthday is that for MY birthday, I'm giving out some sweet presents! I've got a ton of super awesome folks that wanted to help me celebrate my birthday by contributing to one of TWO sweet runner-friendly prize packs! I'm way excited about what I get to hand out and cannot WAIT to get these bad boys mailed off to two lucky winners!

Check it out:

- 2 3-pack headbands from Sparkly Soul

- 1 Spartan Race entry for any US location!

- A handful of my favorite Gu flavors

- ProCompression marathon socks

- High Visibility SPIbelt 

- KIND Snacks -- graola bars, swag, you name it!

- ViewSport Women's tank

These are all some of my favorite running-related things in the world and I cannot believe that they are giving me the chance to share the love with you two. The above list will be divided into TWO prize packs for two lucky folks to win! There are TONS of ways to enter (see below) and get yourself in!

While you're waiting though, you can still celebrate my birthday by getting yourself a sweet discount at Sparkly Soul -- because they're awesome like that and want to help me celebrate too! Use code MEGANSPARKLES for 15% off any individual headbands (not packs, sadly) through October 8. You're welcome. :)

Giveaway runs through 11:59 pm PST, October 8, 2015. Two prize packs will be created from the above list, with approximate value equal between the two. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What was the best birthday present you've ever received?

30 Lessons for 30 Years

I’m almost 30 – give me two days and I’ll say I am. I think I freaked out about this for a hot second, but really, it’s like, Alright, new decade. Time to get my life together and conquer what I want! I’ve got my eye on 18 different prizes and I feel like this is the time to start making things happen.

So here it is. 30 life lessons I’ve learned, primarily in the last seven years since stepping out into the "real world" post-grad school, and things I want to use to continue propelling myself forward as I tackle a new decade with these goals, plans, and dreams in mind.

1.      Own your mistakes. 

2.     Take care of your body.

3.     Take care of your mental health, too.

4.     Be present.

5.     People cannot read your mind.

6.     Give back.

7.       Keep your word. Do what you say you will.
8.       Travel. Go where you please!
9.       There’s something about turning pages of a book.
10.   Put down your phone.
11.   Set goals. Meet them.
12.   A rainy day fund isn’t just a suggestion.

13. Try new things.
14.   Do sometime that scares you regularly.
15.   Never stop learning.
16.   You don’t have to be friends forever and that’s okay.
17.   But hold on to the good ones.
18.   It’s okay to change your life plan.
19.   Go outside your comfort zone.

20. Sarcasm isn't always the answer.
21.   Criticism isn’t always bad.
22.   Live somewhere else.
23.   It’s okay to ask for help.
24.   Apologize when you should.
25.   Stand up for yourself.
26.   Find your thing- that thing that gets you fired up, excited, and inspired. 
27.   Indulging is okay! Treat yourself.
28.   Find a mentor in your field.
29.   Say thank you.
30.   Be kind.

I'll take a cupcake from you if you've got one!

What other wisdom do you have for someone wrapping up their 20s? 

Friday Favorites #4

1.   Firefly Virtual 5K/10K/Half Marathon

You can run this virtual race with me anytime September 26 - October 8. Register here with code MEGAN to save $5 on any of the race distances. Includes race bib, technical race shirt, LED running armband, bag of snacks, finisher's medal and a mystery prize! 10K and half-marathoners receive an extra armband! I hate running at night, but I’m all about the glow sticks and neon fun, so count me in! Join me?

2.       School’s Back!

The university I work at is on the quarter system – it’s still SO WEIRD to me, but whatever. Yesterday school finally started back up again, so it’s awesome seeing the buzz and life back on campus! This week has been all KINDS of insane, and therefore not a lot of miles goin’ down which makes me super sad, but oh well. Such is life, right, and sometimes the paycheck takes precedence over getting in a few miles. I’m hoping tonight before football!

We held two inaugural programs that have certainly been eating up all of our time, but turned out beyond awesome. First, our New Student Convocation which is like the official welcome to our new students from returning students, faculty and staff from all over campus. We had a full house and heard some great things so I think it paid off. The second program (my big baby) is a series of “Ask me!” tables around campus (think like info tables) to give directions, help new students find buildings, get folks to the correct offices for help, and so on. It’s 5 days, 10 hours, and a total of about 550 1-hour shifts to coordinate. Amazing. It’s just day 2 now, but so far, so good… and TONS of great reviews. Hard work pays off, yo.

3.       Birthday Week!

My birthday is alllllllllllllmost here (next Thursday) and I’ve got tons of awesome gifts and prizes to give away, so I’m super stoked. Many thanks to so many amazing companies who are contributing to my #30thbirthdayblogblowout and giving YOU GUYS the chance to win some super sweet birthday presents!

So much fun stuff to give away and I just can’t wait! See more next week for all that it entails – and GET EXCITED!

Happy Friday! What are you up to this weekend?

Wine & Dine: Week 7

 

If you're looking for Week 6, stop looking. There is no week 6  post -- week 6 was terrible, lackluster and far from anything worth writing home on the blog about. With that, however, I bring you Week 7: a week where I started off (what felt like) slow, but in turned out to be an amazing week with two shining gold stars to cap it off! But that's to come later. 

Monday: 4.5 miles

Rest

The office's Birthday Brigade came to visit. :)

It was my birthday! And really, had no desire to go running (see what I mean about the week starting out rough?). So instead, I worked all day (boo for birthdays on Mondays!), went home, and had myself a delicious pizza & ice cream birthday dinner, all while camped out on the couch with my pup. Not a bad 27th birthday, truly. The Friday night prior, I had gone down to Atlanta to go out for dinner and drinks with some friends, and then stayed down Saturday to go to the Georgia Tech game and tailgate -- a decent birthday weekend! Sunday I did absolutely nothing, which happily continued into Monday.

Flowers from the love. <3

Tuesday: 8 x 400/5K pace

3.5 miles / 44:08 / 12:36 pace

Not feeling the idea of speedwork, but still had a strong desire to get out and do something. I hate fall/winter for the only reason that it starts to get dark so early and that limits any time I have for getting Molly out and to the park -- so we ran there. Killin' two birds with one stone, at its best! Olivia and her pup, Jazz, and Molly and I set off on a run-walk (mostly run!) adventure to the park, let the pups play for an hour, and then ran/walked home. Decent pace, considering the hills and pups in tow!

Molly doesn't like running all at once as much as I do.

 Wednesday: 3 miles  + strength

 2.18 miles / 21:59 / 10:05 pace

 Rolled out of bed way too late to make this really count and meet my 3 miles scheduled, but glad I still got out there and ran anyway. Chugged along at a good pace anyway. Nothing special about this morning, aside from cooler temperatures (yay!) and a good blood-pumping way to get movin' today!

Thursday: Rest

3.11 miles / 29:27 / 9:28 pace

I decided to move my rest to Friday, given the weekend I had coming up. This was the first run (since Ragnar, of course) where I deemed it dark enough (out the door by 6:40) to rock the vest on my run. Maybe I was just missing Ragnar, who knows! Set out for my usual 3-mile route and then a little bit more, just for good measure. Turned into a great tempo run overall (thank you cool weather). After this morning, I had decided I would definitely do the 5K on Saturday, so I'm happy for this run to have a good showing and prove that I can definitely rock this race on Saturday!

Friday: 4 miles 

Rest

Saturday: 9 miles

5K Race / Timothy Elementary Roadrunner 5K/ Athens, GA

I was iffy early on this week about if I wanted to do this race or not, especially given that I had the half coming up on Sunday. However, I really wanted to do it because this was my first Georgia race last October and I though it would be fun to bring it all around full-circle in this last running year. Race recap to come!

Sunday: Allstate ATL 13.1 Marathon Series

Half Marathon / Atlanta, GA

    This is what I get for a crappy week last week and an iffy start to this week? I'll take it! Race recap 

    to come also -- here's what you get for now!

Good ending to the week, and hopefully the runner's high that will get me boosted for the next couple of weeks! AthHalf is in just two weeks and now I really want to go big at this race!

Total Week Miles:  24.91

Highest weekly mileage ever!

And with this week (after the half), I officially broke 400 miles for the year! I'm at 405. Not sure I'll hit my 800 goal, but dang! This feels awesome!

How was your week? Any races, PRs, good results?

September Recap

September is over. Seriously, how is this possible?

It wasn't a great month, but really not terrible either. Swung into the first whole month of Wine and Dine training, and definitely felt the high points and hit a few lows with the mental running game. Sometimes it's just not fair! Man. But I also do believe, as I said this morning, is that you need to have bad days and bad runs sometimes -- it proves that running is all mental and that you are usually more capable than you think!

May was this:

·    Total Mileage: 69.92 miles

·    # Runs: 17 (56.14 miles)
 ·   # Cycles: 2 (13.78 miles)
 

·    Favorite Run: Do you really need to ask? Ragnar DC, obviously! If you didn't know that, you haven't been pay attention!

·             -  Races:

o    Running Nerds ATL 20K Relay - September 1

o    Ragnar DC - September 21-22

Other excitement and challenges included these:

• Joining the #sweatpink community! I am so excited about this and excited to spread the pink & fitness love! 

• Spent the weekend after Labor Day in LA for my cousin's bridal shower. Her wedding is the first weekend in November in Austin. It's crazy that it's almost here, given they've been engaged 15 months already! Excitement!
• I had a week of winning aweosomeness -- I won five sparkly bands from Sparkly Soul (my fave headbands ever), then won a free pizza for lunch from CrowdRise via Twitter, and then won a free race entry from The Running Teacher. Can you say awesome?

On the agenda for October? A lot!

• October 6: Roadrunner 5K (this was my first race in Georgia last year and although it's the day before my half, I want to run it again and see how much better I am since last year!)
• October 7: Allstate Atlanta 13.1 Half Marathon (again, many thanks to The Running Teach!)
• October 14: Cupcake Classic 5K (free virtual 5K! What's better?)
• October 21: Athens Half Marathon
• And for the first time in a while... I am not flying anywhere this month! (Sad, but excited)

Happy October! Happy birthday to me!

Birthday!

(So like I said, I'm just going to catch you up on life... so sorry for all the severe back-dating) I'm officially past the quarter-of-a-century mark! Shenanigans, I tell ya. Being in a new town is difficult, especially having only been here for six weeks by the time my birthday rolled around. But, lucky for me, it turned out alright!

My actual birthday was Saturday, but we'll go in order of the weekend's events. Friday I invited some co-workers to go out to dinner, truthfully uncertain of how many and who would actually go, but there were about ten of us in total, which was awesome. We went to this awesome local pizza chain, Mellow Mushroom (yummm) and had a fabulous LASAGNA PIZZA. That's right, lasagna pizza. Amazing. This place is delicious and I will MOST certainly be back. So I had the intentions of hanging with a new friend, Roxy, and checking out the downtown Athens scene but by the time we got out of dinner (11:30!), I was already so tired that I didn't really care. Happy birthday to me, old lady!

Saturday was what turned out to be my sorority's local District Rally. Much like I did in Texas, I'm serving as a regional advisor, if you will, for the chapters of my sorority out here (at Auburn University, Kennesaw State, Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern). Each year, they're required to have a district retreat, which this year happened to be how I got to spend my birthday. Truth be told, it was great. We went camping up at Lake Lanier (feel free to MapQuest, or search Flowery Branch, Georgia; also home of the Atlanta Falcons' training center) and had a great afternoon and morning of s'mores, camping adventures, and sisterly fun. Molly came with me, for her first official camping trip (I mostly brought her because of the lake, truth be told) and we had a great time! I think Molly was really confused with all that was going on, but saw the water and felt right at home... you know how she is.

I mean.. you can't beat this for a birthday view, right?

Happy camper at the lake!

Cuddle time with the pupster.

She initially was VERY uncertain about this whole tent thing.

So all in all, had a great weekend. Met some new sisters, had some s'mores, and they had even made me a cake and sang happy birthday to me! Love. It was good times. Got home late Sunday morning, crashed, cleaned, grocery shopped... you know, the super exciting things 26-year-olds do on their birthday weekends!