Emerald City Fun

 It was during Rock ‘n Roll San Diego that Linz and I discovered we were actually on the same flight up to Seattle. Convenient, yes? Yes. Since I was picking up my dad the night before at SNA, and we were flying out of Long Beach, I stayed in Chino, and got picked up at o’dark thirty for our 9 am flight up to Seattle! (Big thanks to Jet Blue for my airline ticket! Through my ambassadorship with Run Racing for the Holiday Half, I was able to earn a free flight on Jet Blue! Hello racecation!)

We were up in Seattle by 11:30 and quickly met up with Briana, Libby and Libby’s friend Lindsey – this weekend can begin! We knew Friday would be a whirlwind and with all of 30ish hours in the Emerald City, we needed to hit the ground running (pun intended) - we were all staying in different places, so Linz and Paul took off and we knew we'd catch up with them at the We Run Social later in the day anyhow. Briana hopped off the Link and Libby, Lindsey and I made our way to our score of a hotel (Paramount Hotel near the Space Needle. We super lucked out). 

After checking in and getting situated and our phones charged a bit, we headed back down to Pioneer Square to meet up with Briana and Andrew for lunch. Briana called dibs on Tat's Deli and holy wow - delicious. A must-eat if you're back up in Seattle any time soon! Half the crew had Tat's noteworthy pastrami, and I devoured a massive meatball sub, because you can never go wrong with meatballs!

  

Finish line going up near Century Link! See you tomorrow, finish line! 

After lunch, we hopped back on the Link to make our way down to CenturyLink field to get our bibs and packet pick up done before the meet up. Easy peasy - the expo had started Thursday, so Friday afternoon was just quiet enough to get in through bibs, shirts, and the front store pretty quickly.

 Briana's #poseoftheday: group tree pose!

And then meet up fun! Linz, Carlee and I got to host the WRS meet up in conjunction with the super fab folks at ProCompression. New friends, reconnecting with old friends, putting faces to Instagram handles - SO. MUCH. FUN. Thank you to everyone that joined us and we hope you a) had a blast b) won some socks or hats or visors and c) will come back again soon! I had a blast meeting you all!

Thank you everyone! <3

PC love. 

Rock 'n Bloggers. 

Me, Linz & Carlee. Love these two!

  After the meet up, we took some time to wander through the entire expo itself, including playing on Brooks riding shoes, trying to win some free shoes, filling in for Sparkly Soul just a little bit, and then getting on with the rest of the fun! And by then... we were beat. It was nearly 5:30 already! And we had a city to go see! Both Libby and Shelby hadn't been to Seattle before, and while I had, it'd been a solid 15 years since I had, so I still wanted to poke around a little bit too!

In keeping up with my run streak though, I still had a mile to get in. Libby and I deeply contemplated taking the monorail to the Space Needle (and then we could run a mile back), or do we just do the treadmill in the hotel? We eventually settled on the 'mill and busted out a quick mile so we could get on with dinner and on with our short touristing time! We were literally a mile from the Needle, so we took the monorail up and spent our evening playing around the famed landmark. 

Despite some slight rain earlier, the sky had broken up a bit and our trip to the top of the Space Needle totally lucked out: pretty clear, gorgeous evening, sunset in progress. It couldn't have gotten any better.

We also purchased a combo ticket to get into the Chihuly Gardens & Glass exhibit which I'd been dying to go through. Gorgeous, breathtaking and to think... it's all glass. I was totally and completly blown away! 

Could. Not. Get enough! 

Clearly.

Me, Libby, & Lindsey!

After nearly three hours up in the park, we decided it was a much needed end to our day - grabbed dinner, ate back in our room, got race day ready and hit the hay about 11 for our early wake up. Thankfully, since we were so close to the start, we didn't have to head out super duper early - especially with that rain forecast, we were a little uncertain about what the morning would actually have in store for us!

Hoping #FlatMegan would be enough - please don't rain!

Race day recap coming soon - but  I can't wait to share how much fun I had! 

What are other must-sees or dos in Seattle for next time I'm there?

Friday Favorites #21: Seattle Bound!

It's FRIIIIIIIIIIDAYYYYYYYYY! And this is one special post -- all about my next two days' worth of shenanigans.

Which also means that I'm on a plane (with Linz no less!) and Seattle bound for Rock 'n Roll Seattle! I haven't been to Seattle in like 15 years, so though I'm only up in the PNW for something like 37 hours, I am pumped to see some more #RocknBlog friends, chill in the 70 degree weather (versus the forecasted 100 here in So Cal) this weekend, run and just have a blast. Views don't hurt either, so excited to run through another new city and take it all in!

I'm staying with a fellow Sparkly Soul ambassador, Libby, and her sorority sister who's in for some fun! I finally got to meet Libby in person in San Diego, so yay for a weekend to hang out too! After Sharpie and I land, we're teaming up with Carlee host to the #WeRunSocial meet up with Pro Compression. My first time hosting and it's going to be a BALL. Be there. You won't regret it.

This blue beauty will be mine tomorrow morning and I'm stoked to say that I will be then crossing off Washington and state #10 on my quest to run a half marathon in all 50 states. Boom.

A little more post-race fun, including a finish line concert with the New Pornographers, and then... it all comes to a crashing halt tomorrow evening when I come back to So Cal and some searing, toasty 100-degree weather! Womp.

Who's headed to Seattle this weekend?

A Ragnar Packing List

Running a Ragnar relay is unlike any other race experience you've ever had. While your team has a start time, the time you actually start running might be one, five, eight hours later, so you're kind of all-day prepping for a race start. You could run at 8 am and 3 the same afternoon and then again at midnight, so how do you fuel up? When do you sleep (spoiler: not much, if at all). 

There are enough logistics to throw a race-day-prepper for a total loop, so how on earth do you keep yourself straight when you're out of whack with your normal race morning prep? My best advice: make sure you've got it all - everything you'll definitely need, everything you think you'll need, and everything that you've never thought about needing because at some point, it will come in handy. Trust me. 

I created this Ragnar packing list for you to help keep yourself straight for 20-something hours of fun. Link leads to downloadable PDF - share away, I just ask that you keep my handle and info on the page if you share/re-post the images! 

Downloadable here. 

That's about it. I'll also add to the Van Supplies a food list for your team. Consider community snackage over everyone bringing their own thing (and therefore more coolers). Team essentials will vary team to team, but I've always found myself with tons of leftover snackage for drives/flights home, which is never a bad thing in my book. Better to have too much food that to wake up starving in a van driving through Maryland countryside at 2 am with nothing open, right? 

Good luck on your Ragnar adventure!  

Weekend Love: The Phoenix Edition

Oh man, what a weekend. Can I get a weekend to recover from the weekend (or the past five)? If only Mondays weren’t so cruel. This weekend was ridiculously amazing and while I can’t wait to share my race recap with you, you’ll have to wait a few more days (the torture, I know) so I can share generally about the awesomeness that this entire weekend was!

Friday morning was a boatload of errands in getting ready to head out the door to Phoenix. Dropped Molly off at my parents’ house, visited the niece!... you know, things that are critical before heading out of town. We got dropped off at the airport to pick up our rental car and were out and on the road by 11:30. A few more errands on the way out (isn’t adulting fun?) and we were really, really on the road by noon. A Chipotle lunch stop and then for the long haul to Phoenix. We got in about 7 pm (dang time change) and Tina met us at our hotel about half hour later to get to the expo. She stayed the night in our super ghetto fab hotel to save herself 45 extra minutes in the morning. 

We're on the wall... somewhere!

And just like that... race day was upon us! Because we weren't getting our stuff until nearly 8 pm, half the expo had shut down (bummer), but we still had some fun. We got back to our room, settled in with the first episode of Fuller House, and were in bed for real before 10:30. With a 3:00-something alarm clock, 10:30 was already pushing it. 

Race morning. Unless I'm gunning for a goal, I don't really get nervous before a race. I was a ball of nerves before this race (like all week long) and they really flared up as Tina and I headed to the race start. Nothing like a marathon you're already not feeling ready for, right?

And then there was a race.

Mile 17. And feeling surprisingly amazing.

Tina ran the half while I ran the full, so she had plenty of time to kill between her finish (2:30) and mine (spoiler: 4:55). Her hubby and kiddos came out for a bit but were gone by the time I finished - such is the life with two toddlers! 

I promise, race recap coming on Wednesday so you can read all about how it wasn't even close to the time I was gunning for but how ecstatic I am with how I performed. Makes sense, doesn't it? Yep.

It was HARD getting up on that stage...

I headed straight back to the pool for an ice bath in the hotel and a quick shower before Doug and I went to meet up with Kasey (no pics... does that mean it didn't happen?) at The Yard (best post-marathon lunch ever) for drinks and lunch. Then it was off to Tina and Jon's for an attempt at a nap - does anyone else's legs get super twitchy and restless after a long race? before we headed out with the Lyonses for a celebration evening! Celebrating our races, friends, and of course... our engagement!

What a freaking fun evening but by then I was BEAT. At least I knew I'd sleep well that night considering my uber-short nap that afternoon. So maybe that's a win, too!

I was greeted Sunday morning with toddlers yelling for me (seriously, adorable) and singing happy birthdayyyyy at the top of their lungs because who cares if it's not someone's birthday? What a fun way to wake up! Doug and I headed out of town and stopped at Cracker Barrel for pancakes (best day-after breakfast ever) before really getting on the road. We were back home about 3, dropped off the rental, unpacked and duh... finished our weekend at the happiest place on earth.

Disney... duh!

Amazing weekend, amazing friends, amazing memories. How lucky can one woman get?

How was your weekend?

Phoenix-Bound & Marathon Weekend

Arizona or bust!

It's Phoenix Marathon weekend. Holy crap.

Today, we're Phoenix-bound. Checking into our hotel for the night, dinner, waiting for Tina to get there so we can hit up the expo and promptly pass out because we have an alarm clock for o'dark thirty hours to catch a bus to the top of a mountain. 

Or something like that.

We were in Phoenix just four weeks ago, but I am WAY excited to see my favorite twins again!

But because it's a Friday, and my Friday Favorites are always a thing, here's some extra super special favorites:

1. Fuller House

 Fuller House hit Netflix today! That is all. 

2. #TheGibblers

In such an honor, the interwebz are rocking their Gibblers today for Kimmie or the amazing Andrea Barber. If you don't have them yet, you can order them here. And if you are, make sure you share the love with #thegibblers on IG. I rocked mine on a little shakeout run this morning. 

3. Yoga

In the last six weeks or so since I started doing yoga just once a week, I've really come to enjoy my hour-long session on Wednesday evenings. A chance to recoup, rejuvenate and let go of whatever is going on in real life or in my head. I still feel like this sometimes:

but I can already feel what a difference it's made. Now if I can just get myself to practice more than once a week (my dad's a total yogi and goes three times a week!), I know how much more it will do for me. I am far from flexible, but I see a little progress and that's exciting. :)

Have you watched the entire 13 episodes of Fuller House yet?!

Weekend Adventures in NYC + Birthday Giveaway Winners!

Most epic birthday weekend/week ever. So after coming back from Portland on Monday, I was absolutely good for nothing on Monday afternoon. I took that as my sign to kick back and rest. Tuesday, then, was the day I felt like a chicken with my head cut off - post-PDX laundry, unpacking, errands, and then re-packing for New York!

My flight out was 7:30 on Wednesday morning, and despite leaving 2.5 hours before I needed to even BE there, I was still on the road at 7:15. For a bit, I thought I'd just cut it close, pay a billion dollars for airport parking at LAX and try and run in... and then I gave up and knew I'd have no way of making it. So parked the car off-site, shuttled in and just pleaded my case to the Delta counter. High fives for Delta who hooked me up - they only charged me $50 for the flight change and got me out at 12 noon. There are perks to landing in New York after dark though...

Some pretty magnificent views, that's for sure. After that trip though, we didn't get back to my sister's place until nearly 11:30 so she was ready to crash and I didn't complain. Thursday and Friday my sister had to work most of the day, so I was off to play in the city and entertain myself. First stop: the Highline. The coolest above-ground railroad track turned city park. I walked the entire stretch, including the new extension, so about 20 city blocks in total.

After that, it was off to Times Square just to kill time while I waited for my sister. I'd been through the chaos before, but on this gorgeous Thursday morning it wasn't all that crazy. I stopped in some stores because why not shop? And then I stumbled upon this!

Total random but super awesome! My luck. The rest of the time I spent in Times Square was really just people-watching, checkout the hoards of tourists coming off buses and taking it all in again. One of my life goals (seriously) is to spend New Years Eve in Times Square but the more I say that out loud, the dumber I think I am.

After my sister got out about 4:15, we headed up to the top of Rockefeller (Top of the Rock) for some of the most amazing views of Manhattan, the Statue of Liberty and basically buildings as far as you can see out. It was the perfect day for going 900 feet up and I still can't believe the views you get that high up! Central Park, Ellis Island, and every signature bit in New York are crystal-clear from that high up! Amazing.

Afterwards, we headed back down to dinner and my birthday present from my sister - tickets to Chicago! This was actually Rumer Willis' Broadway debut show and no lie, she is pretty fantastic. I figured with a Dancing with the Stars win that surely she can dance, but she actually belts out a Roxie Hart song pretty well too. A great show, tons of fun and I felt like I was really getting New York in that way! :)

Friday was a quick shakeout through Central Park, just 3 easy miles but lots of touristing, stopping for photos and making sure I took it all in. When my mom, grandma and I came and visited my sister 4 years ago, I did a nice run through the Park in winter too, but this day was so pretty, it felt like a whole different place. Magical even.

Friday afternoon was race expo + meet up fun (more on that soon). But as I wrapped up my run in Central Park (with the photo above), I've never felt so lucky, or so grateful, to get to go on such a trip. My sister was an awesome host and I'm just mad at myself that it took another four years to get back and visit her! Sorry, sister. But thank you for an amazing weekend. Love you!

What other must-do NYC things did I miss that I need to do next time?


And now what you've really been waiting for... my #30thbirthdayblogblowout giveaway winners! Thank you to all 390 entrants for making this my best giveaway ever! Congratulations to Kasey and Stephanie for winning! You'll have an email soon describing your package + info I need from you!

Have a great Tueday, friends! Brooklyn and Long Beach recaps coming later this week as part of my #30halfsfor30years and #BKtoLB shenanigans!

The City of Roses

I hadn't been to Oregon since I was maybe in high school, and before than even elementary school, but I don't think I'd ever been to Portland. Despite only having about 48 hours in the city (and even less than that, really), I wanted to squeeze in as much as we could (naturally) duirng our quick weekend getaway! 

On our way! 

Our flight out of Long Beach was Saturday morning and we were in Portland and landed about 12:45 pm. We figured that we'd be on a train around 1:30 to get to our hotel, drop our things off, down to the expo to pick up race day essentials and then be on our way to explore PDX and all it had to offer. (Side note: this Portland Bucket List is awesome and I wish we had had more time to do it all!) The city had other plans -- a light rail train derailed somewhere around the exit we had to get off at to get to the hotel. So on the first train, the conductor suggested getting off at one of the main transit centers and catching a bus into downtown (where the expo was). So we're waiting around for the bus - meanwhile, people see me in my Portland Marathon Ambassador shirt and are asking me where to go! - and then a TriMet guy comes out and says "Hey, there's another train, take that one and by the time you'll get near the derailment, it should be clear!" So duh, we do that. 

Mandatory PDX carpet selfie.

Wrong, wrong and so wrong. We got stopped like three stops later and spent half an hour sitting on that train before we gave up and went to go catch another bus. We befriended an older couple who were at least getting us as best around as they knew how. So we caught that bus, transferred to another one and eventually got to downtown before our hotel. We figured we were that far already that we may as well hit the expo (all our luggage in tow) and then fight our way to the hotel. By the time we got to our hotel, checked in and upstairs, it was nearly 5:30 pm. Shenanigans. 

I had mentioned maybe going to the Portland Timbers game that evening, solely because they have one of the most live and tradition-based soccer teams in the country and even though they weren't playing the Galaxy, it'd totally be worth going to, but again... 4 hours later, that was the last thing I wanted. So we hightailed up to the hotel bar for the last 5 minutes of happy hour and spent well over three hours there watching the night's college football games. No complaints - a great bartender, great view of the city from across the river, and drinks. Color me happy. 

DOUGHNUTS! 

Sunday after the race (recap coming later today!) was pretty much all we had for exploring the city. Post-race we headed straight over to Voodoo Doughnuts because, duh, Portland. The line was only about 20 minutes, so we must have caught the last little wave before people really got going after the race - win! The gloriousness and OMG, the gluttony. We ended up with six: the classic sprinkles + vanilla, plain glazed, Oreo + vanilla, Portland Creme, a maple bacon bar and the signature voodoo doll that has a pretzel stake in his chest and oozes raspberry filling when you tear him apart. So. Good. 

After Voodoo, we headed back to the hotel so I could shower and nap and then got our day going. I really wanted to go check out the International Rose Test Garden up in Washington Park.A nice train and bus ride later (seriously, Portland's lightrail system is awesome), we were at the top of the park. 

An amazing view of downtown... and roses on roses on roses! The garden is home to some 550+ varities of roses, some which don't even have names because again, they're test roses! 4.5 acres of some of the most beautiful roses in colors I didn't even know existed. There are no words, but highly recommend you taking a visit here if you get the chance. The garden is supposedly open April - October and is free! 

Could NOT get enough. 

After the garden, we met up with two of my running club friends and their spouses (we were the kids of the group, for sure) and headed over to Blue Star Donuts who was unfortunately sold out of most everything by the time we got there. I've heard that they're "better" and "more gourmet," whatever that means in donut terms). So then we made our way to Deschutes, which is based in Bend but also has a brewery in downtown Portland, for drinks and some snacks (Doug and I were starving). After a tasting flight there and a citrus beer for me, we walked over to the Portland City Grill. Highly recommended by that couple on the bus, and despite being a little dressed down, we got in anyway.

This place is on the 30th floor of the US Bank building and overlooks the entire downtown area and the Williamette River. There are stunning views on clear days of Mount Hood and it's just breathtaking. We got up just in time for the last of the sunset and then got to see all the lights at night, too. I definitely want to go back here if we get the chance, to enjoy either a) a window table or b) a full meal, but note that it's not super cheap ($30-50 per plate). But oh my, the views make it worth it !

And that was that. Monday morning, we were up before the sun to get on the train (with no issues!) to head up to the airport and back home. Short trip, amazing trip, but it's definitely leaving me wanting more! 

What else is on your Portland to-do list?

50 States Goals

So I’ve talked quite a bit about Brooklyn on here – and as stoked as I am to cross off state #9 in the half-marathon-in-all-50-states quest, there’s another new state that comes just 6 days before New York that I haven’t gotten to mention yet! Total fail.

Yeahhhh buddy! For my 30^th birthday weekend (!), I’m headed up the Pacific coast to lovely, hippie, green Portland, Oregon. I’ve been to Portland (but it’s been yearssssssssssss) and am super excited for a quick weekend getaway with Doug to celebrate, run, drink, eat, and do all the things that you’re supposed to do in Oregon. Like maybe go find a waterfall.

Totally worth the side trip, am I right?

 I’m serving as an Ambassador for the Portland Marathon. Because I registered late, I actually am registered for the half marathon as a charity runner, which is new to me! Half of my registration cost actually goes to the race’s Going the Distance Foundation, which then in turn sends money out to other local organizations and charities too!). Apparently their half marathon sells out before January of each year – seriously, like ten months in advance, Disney style, so you know this race is coveted and bound to be an amazing event.

Check out the swag – as this race has been voted Best Swag in years past – and I’m not gonna lie.. I’m pretty excited about this tree.

Also, can we talk about how it’s not a space blanket? Takes-up-way-too-much-space-blankets are just annoying and noisy and I’m super excited about actually keeping this post race and using it at other races over the winter!

As of today, I’ve also learned that the race folks are working with a local Portland organizations called Piano! Push! Play!, which is a group that takes donated pianos and puts them in parks all over the city – sometimes with musicians, and sometimes just left out for the public to play and enjoy. There will be two along the course – the first with a musician, the second left open for runners (and spectators!) to stop for a few quick notes. How cool, right? I hope it comes with this cutie patootie puppy along for the ride, too.

My 30^th birthday race extravaganza is going to kick start with this amazing race and race-cation and I could NOT be more excited. Want to join me in Race #1 of my birthday celebrations? The full marathon is still open, though only for about a week more! Half marathon charity spaces are still open too, but those are slim so act quick! Use code MEGAN10 to save  $10 on your registration!

Have you ever done a birthday race? I have to wait until at least 2016 for my birthday to be a race day, but this is close enough for now, so I'm excited!