#12DaysOfCarleesChristmas Discount Codes

Not only did the AMAZING brands who participated in my #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas provide FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC prizes for the giveaways, but most of them are offering you a discount if you order from them in the next few days (some of the coupons expire on Christmas, others on New Years Eve and one is even good through January). I thought I'd make it easy for you and put all of the discount codes in one place, that way you don't have to click through all twelve posts. I also included their social media links in case you aren't following the companies already - I promise, they all ROCK MY SOCKS and you should definitely give them a follow on any and all platforms you are active on! You won't be sorry.

Day 1: Sarah Marie Design Studio
          Website - https://sarahmariedesignstudio.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/SarahMarieDesignStudio
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/shopSMDS
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/ShopSMDS
          Discount Code - "CARLEEXMAS" - 15% off through 12/25

Day 2: ROAD iD

          Website - https://www.roadid.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/RoadID/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/ROADiD
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/roadid
          Discount Link - http://roadid.refr.cc/carlee - Save $5 through 12/29

Day 3: Handful
          Website - https://handful.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HandfulInc/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/handfulbra
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/handfulbra
          Discount Code - "CARLEEMCDOT" - 10% off through 12/31

Day 4: nuun
          Website - https://nuunlife.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/nuunhydration/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/nuunhydration
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/nuun_hydration
          Discount Code - "CARLEE25" - 25% off through 1/30/19

Day 5: Rolflex
          Website - https://irolflex.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/iRolflex/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/iRolflex
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/irolflex

Day 6: PRO Compression
          Website - https://procompression.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/procompression/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/PROCompression
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/procompression
          Discount Code - "CARLEE12" - 40% off through 12/31

Day 7: Momentum Jewelry
          Website - https://momentumjewelry.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MomentumJewelry/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/MomentumJewelry
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/momentumjewelry
          Discount Code - "findyourSPARK15" - 15% off through 12/31

Day 8: Sparkly Soul
          Website - https://sparklysoul.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sparklysoulinc/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/SPARKLYSOULINC
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/sparklysoulinc/
          Discount Code - "CARLEEXMAS" - 20% off through 12/25

Day 9: Knockaround
          Website - https://knockaround.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/knockaround/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/Knockaround
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/knockaround
          Discount Code - "CARLEE15" - 15% off through 12/31

Day 10: MudLOVE
          Website - https://www.mudlove.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MudLOVEPottery/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/MudLOVE
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/mudlove
          Discount Code - "CARLEE" - 20% off through 12/31

Day 11: PROBAR
          Website - http://theprobar.com/
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/theprobar/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/THEPROBAR
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/theprobar
          Discount Code - "CARLEE" - 20% off through 12/31

Day 12: Garmin
          Website - https://www.garmin.com
          Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/garminfit/
          Twitter - https://twitter.com/GarminFitness
          Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/garmin

And now for the bad news... After four years of running my #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas (yep, I have had this series going for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018), I am going to put it on hold for the foreseeable future. The series takes A LOT of work (I'm not sure if you've run a giveaway before, but try running 12 consecutive ones, with a total of 67 winners), so I am planning to hang up my elf hat for a while. Maybe I will do a single giveaway with a ton of prizes around the holidays, maybe I will do smaller giveaways throughout the year, who knows - but I did want to at least give you all a heads up because I know a large number of you look forward to the twelve days of giveaways come December. I want to say it again, I am FOREVER GRATEFUL to the brands who have supported me and continue to support me in my running adventures. Hopefully you will help reciprocate some of the love they've shown me by supporting them in return.

What was your favorite giveaway this year?

Riverside Lexus LaceUp Half Marathon Race Recap

The other day (Sunday, December 2nd to be exact) was the fourth and final race in the Lexus LaceUp Running Series for 2018 - the Riverside Reindeer Run! I didn't want my recap to get lost in the shuffle of the #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas posts, so I guess you can just consider this a little #TBT. {PS In case you haven't skimmed the recaps from the previous races, make sure to grab a cup of hot cocoa, pull up a chair and get your read on - they're worth your time! (Orange County Lexus LaceUp Half Marathon, Ventura Marathon and Palos Verdes Lexus LaceUp Half Marathon).}

As I'm sure you concluded from the name of the race, this was Christmas themed. And, if you don't know, I love all things Christmas! I mean, I may or may not have put up our Christmas tree 2.5 weeks before Thanksgiving...

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Although this race series hasn't been my favorite (again, you'll have to go back and read my recaps from the past races to see why), the hubby and I were determined to see it through to the end - free race entries didn't hurt either ;)

I have to give a HUGE THANKS to Brooks for supplying some of the amazing accessories!
#FlatCarlee included: red and white striped PRO Compression socks, red Handful sports bra, green Sparkle Athletic skirt, baseball tee
I made (grabbed a blank one from Dick's Sporting Goods, then the hubby mocked up a "Dachshund Through The Snow" graphic and
my friend printed it out on her Cricut so I could iron it onto the tee), elite Road ID, Brooks headband with reindeer antlers, jingle bell
bracelets from Brooks, Christmas light necklace from Brooks (the bulbs actually light up!), red and green QALO silicone wedding bands,
Ugly Christmas Sweater Knockaround sunglasses (from last year), red Momentum Jewelry wraps, my Garmin Forerunner 935, and
Brooks Levitate 2 (Ugly Christmas Sweater pattern).

The race was on Sunday, which meant we got all of our ducks elves in a row on Saturday for the early morning wake up call come Sunday morning. Thankfully this wasn't our first rodeo and we have our pre-race routines down pat.

We wanted to leave by 4:30 to get us to the park by 6am, which
meant I needed to be up around 3am so I could get my giveaway
for the day posted, get ready, get breakfast ready for the hubby and
pup, wake the hubby and take the pup for a walk before leaving.

One of the things I appreciate about this race series is the fact that it offers race day packet pick-up. Although the events are located in Southern California, SoCal is a rather large geographical area and therefore I wouldn't say all the races are "local" {it took us 4 hours to get to Ventura the afternoon before that race}. Not having to drive to an Expo on the day before the race is a HUGE plus for me. In fact, there are some races I would love to do, but it isn't worth it for me to drive there and back on the day before the race to grab my bib and then again on the day of the race to run, nor is it worth it to pay for a hotel to stay in the night before. {#RealTalk} The Lexus LaceUp Running Series even includes race day pick-up as a "free" perk if you register early enough (the cut off for this race was November 6th, about 3.5 weeks before the event) - and even if you missed the cut-off the extra cost will only cost you $5, which I feel is totally reasonable.

We arrived before the lines started forming

After we grabbed our bibs, we scurried back to the car to try and stay warm pre-race. (Yep, I absolutely own the fact that my blood thinned after moving from the frozen tundra that is Michigan to sunny and warm SoCal.)

Car selfies are a must (or at least they help to pass the time)

With the race set to start at 7am, we decided we'd wait until about 6:40am before getting out of the toasty sleigh car and make our way to the starting line. (PS This race offered many parking options with available shuttles, but a little elf told me if we got there early enough we may be able to sneak into a parking lot at the Fairmont Park... and sneak we did ;)) We lucked out with a parking spot less than a 10 minute walk to the start/finish and didn't require the riding of a shuttle.

The majority of the race was in the shade, so even the sun
didn't help to warm us up much throughout the morning.

Obviously the hubby and I needed to snap a quick picture together at the start. It actually turned out to be the only picture we got together (other than the free race pictures we were provided {one of my favorite race perks!}) - #FAIL!

But at least we made it a cute one, right?!

One of the official photographers saw us taking start line
photos and snapped a couple on his camera too.

Not overly crowded - there were only 478 finishers of the half marathon.

Before we knew it we were on our journey of running through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops, and then walking through the Lincoln Tunnel - oh wait, that wasn't the course description at all... We'd be running through Riverside neighborhoods and on the Santa Ana River Trail, but it's sort of the same thing, right?!

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As always, if the hubby is willing to run with me, I am willing to run his pace - so we decided to tackle the race with no set plan. The hubby's knee had been bothering him lately (which is why he has opted out of the ultra in January), so we figured we'd take it as easy as we needed without agitating his body. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy pushing the pace, but it's also great to dial it back, soak up the sights and enjoy the journey. Not to mention, it gave me time to snap pictures of the funny race signs throughout the course and make a couple character stops along the route. #Priorities

Although the Palos Verdes race is touted as the scenic one of the series, the hubby and I actually really enjoyed this course (but maybe it was because we didn't go in with high expectations). The neighborhoods we ran through were cute (the hubby even pointed out a few homes for sale and mentioned we could check them out... but then we'd have to live in Riverside ;)), the river trail reminded us of Oceanside, and the little lake (or maybe it was a pond) was purrrrrty too!

The course definitely wasn't as hilly as the Palos Verdes race we had run a few weeks earlier, but it had some decent rollers throughout (I think we gained about 350 feet of elevation as compared to the over 900 feet at Palos Verdes).

If you read my Ventura Marathon recap, you may remember there were a few places along the course where runners were crossing paths and it was a bit chaotic. There were a couple spots like that in this race as well, but thankfully when the hubby and I went through there wasn't too much oncoming traffic to worry about.

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The hubby and I both mentioned that we thought this was our second favorite course of the series (behind the Ventura Marathon {first place} but before the Palos Verdes Half {third place} and the Orange County Half {fourth place}).

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I know these races aren't totally "local" for us, but I still love seeing friends I know on the course. Looking for familiar faces also gives you something to do on the out and back portions where you are going in opposition to other runners.

Robert found me before we started

And we saw Pam and Richard crushing the course!

Then we had to stop and chat for a few minutes with Linzie and Megan!

I know some people are interested in the nitty gritty details, so I thought I'd mention that the hubby and I fueled with PROBAR BOLT Chews (duh ;)). We split a package, which has two servings in it, around Mile 6.5 and it worked perfectly. Although the hubby prefers the Berry Blast flavor (and the added caffeine), I grabbed my favorite - Pink Lemonade!

I would say I use this to fuel 95% of my long runs and races (unless I'm fueling with donuts and Fireball)

The scenic course was supposed to be sprinkled with a flurry of holiday cheer including carolers at the finish line, Santa Claus appearances and the “Santa Lane”– a section of the course filled with holiday music, decorations and entertainment. There were carolers at one part of the race (which was awesome), but when we were coming back they had already packed up and were on their way out. I also didn't see Santa or hear any holiday music along the way (because you better believe I would have stopped for photos!)... But I guess the humorous signs made up for it? 

Even without the holiday decorations they mentioned, the hubby and I still had a blast.

And the jingle bells I wore on my wrists didn't seem to annoy too many people ;)

Am I the only one who thought the two balls in the background either looked like a butt or boobs?!

This was the only type of "holiday decorations" I saw on the course...
And they probably could have been skipped...

Throw your hands up if you're running your FIFTEENTH half marathon! Yup, the hubby is a ROCKSTAR!

Eventually it was time to make our way across the finish line. Even with the pit stops to stretch (hubby), use the potty (hubby again), chat with friends (me), stop for photo ops (me again), we still finished with a quite respectable 2:12:40.

CRAZY! A finish line photo that doesn't have been stopping my Garmin ;)

And then it happened.... SANTA! He came to celebrate me completing my 50th half marathon (and the hubby's 15th)! Apparently the elves had everything under control and he was able to take the morning off to come cheer me in.

And, let me tell you, he did not smell like beef and cheese!

Okay, so this one wasn't the real Santa, but he was a decent stand-in ;)

After a quick pic with the big man himself, the hubby nudged me and reminded me we had food to track down. You see, one of the perks from this race series is a food truck breakfast... And we had been skunked at the other races when the trucks had run out of the food we could eat (we're vegetarians) and were craving. (I'm not sure if they weren't adequately prepared or if the runners who finished the shorter races before us bought extra portions and therefore they ran out, but all we knew was we didn't want to be 'stuck' with smoothies again - especially since it was still chilly out!)

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Despite the fact that the food truck we were eyeballing had run out of tortillas for the breakfast burritos, they still offered us "bowls". (Apparently they also had run out of hash browns for the burritos/bowls because we found curly fries instead.)

My deconstructed breakfast burrito may not look amazing, but it was pretty tasty!

As always, the hubby cashed in on my beer ticket and grabbed two beers (maybe that's why he agrees to run with me ;)).

I've never heard him complain about me not liking beer and having to drink mine for me ;)

On the way to the car we saw Linzie and Megan so we snapped a quick photo and wished each other a Merry Christmas (since the hubby and I are done with races for the 2018 year and probably won't be seeing them until after the New Year).

Oh yeah, and because we had run all four of the Lexus LaceUp races, we got some extra bling! I donate my medals, so I am normally not one to ogle the race medals, but I did think the fact that it spun in two directions was pretty cool!

The very center part spins vertically and the middle portion spins horizontally

I'll be honest, I loved last year's Reindeer medal, so this one was just so-so.

Thankfully the traffic for the drive home didn't look too crazy yet (85 minutes for the 70ish miles), so we hoped in the car, pumped the Christmas tunes and hit the road. It took the hubby all of about 10 minutes to fall asleep (which was 9 minutes longer than I assumed he'd last), but what can you expect when you get up before the butt crack of dawn?!

He says the car just rocks him to sleep... at least that's the excuse he gives and it's not my lame conversation ;)

And I can't wrap up this post without giving a MAJOR THANKS to the Lexus LaceUp crew for letting me be a part of the team this year. It was great to be able to check out all of the events during the 2018 season (as I've mentioned, the hubby and I both received comped entries to all of the races this year, but you know that doesn't effect my recap in any way)!

Are you running in any holiday themed races?

Day 12 of #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas

Thanks so much for stopping by my corner of the InterWebs today. Whether you've been following along on my journey since I started this blog OVER TWELVE YEARS AGO or you stopped by for the first time today - WELCOME!

And no matter how long you've been visiting, you picked an AMAZING time to pop in because we're celebrating my #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas {read my post announcing this series HERE if you don't know what I'm talking about}.

Today is Day 12 of my #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas! And the prize today is pretty FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC! Although, to be honest, all of the prizes are absolutely AMAZEBALLS! If I could enter my own giveaways I'm pretty sure I would enter each and every one of them in this series (and somehow rig it so I'd win) because they are just that AWESOMESAUCE.

Up for grabs today is: a Garmin Forerunner 645 Music.

For today, DAY TWELVE, one winner will be selected, winning a Garmin Forerunner 645 Music of their very own.

I am a numbers girl. I'm sure it wouldn't surprise you to find out that I started college thinking I was going to be a math major (and only switched to Economics when I found out I 'only' needed 4 semesters of Calculus for Econ instead of the 6 for Math). So when I started running outdoors I knew I needed some sort of watch that would help me track my data.

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Let's be real, I am frugal and since I wasn't sure if running was going to 'stick' I decided to opt for a refurbished watch I found on eBay. I ended up with the Garmin Forerunner 110 and loved it. It was one of my first running purchases and I had it for the first 2.5 or so years of my running career. It was big and chunky but it made me feel like a "real runner".

When I realized running was here to stay (and I found a great deal on a new watch so I could "splurge"), I upgraded to the Garmin Forerunner 220. This watch offered many new features (bluetooth connection to Garmin Connect, the ability to set up intervals, a less chunky appearance, etc). I kept this watch for about 2 years until I upgraded again.

My next GPS watch was the Garmin Forerunner 735XT (sensing a pattern here?!). This one allowed for multi-sport (so instead of everything recording as 'running', I could choose my activity before I begin to include things such as hiking, biking (both indoor and outdoor), swimming (both indoor and outdoor), trail running, strength training, etc). I loved this watch, but as I'm sure you have guessed by now, I had it for about 2 years before upgrading to another Forerunner ;)

My current watch is the Garmin Forerunner 935. The main reason for the switch to this watch was the amazing battery life. It has all of the features I could want AND I can keep the GPS running on it for upwards of 24 hours. You may chuckle and say "Why would you need that long of a battery charge?" but when the hubby and I were running the Grand Canyon I had to charge my watch (I had a Fenix 5S for a brief moment) mid-run. With my first official ultra on the calendar in January, I knew battery life was of utmost importance. And, if the pattern continues, I'll probably have this watch till 2020 ;)

Anywho, because Garmin is AMAZING (I have been beyond blessed to have been on their ambassador team for a while now and I'm crossing my fingers I'm in for 2019), they offered one of the new Forerunner 645 Music watches for YOU!

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Running is more than just exercise, it’s a performance. And Forerunner 645 Music has the tools to help you put on an outstanding show every time you lace up. It features on-device music storage, so you can run with your favorite tunes, and contactless payments that let you buy what you need without missing a beat. With all that plus advanced running dynamics and performance monitoring tools, this GPS running watch is the instrument you need to put on a show.

Entering this giveaway (along with the other #12DaysOfCarleesChristmas giveaways) is easy-peasy! Simply use the Rafflecopter widget listed below on the giveaway blog post and cross your fingers. Some entries are available daily so I'd HIGHLY recommend entering early and often. (Shoot, I would even go as far as suggesting you set an alarm to remind you to come back to this page every 24 hours so you can take advantage of as many entries as possible!)

a Rafflecopter giveaway Now, the nitty gritty details... All entries are verified, so please make sure to do whatever the required action for the entry is or it will be disqualified. I would hate for you to miss out on winning due to a technicality, so if you are going to click the option, make sure you do whatever it asks or a new, random winner will be selected in your place.

Also, this giveaway will last seven days, with the random winner being picked (and notified) on the eighth day. The winner will have 24 hours to reply to the congratulations email from me to claim their prize. That means, for this specific giveaway, it will end on December 18th at 11:59pm PST and the ONE winner will be chosen on December 19th.

And, finally, the winner must have a US mailing address. International shipping seems to cost an arm and a leg these days, and customs is a major headache, so to make it easier (and cheaper) on the brands who have offered up their products, the winner must live in United States of America (or at least have an address we can ship to within the US).

With that said, BEST OF LUCK TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERS! I hope you have enjoyed each and every one of my giveaways (and have been lucky enough to have been selected as a winner)! A HUGE THANKS to all of the amazing brands who offered up their products for this series. If you don't follow these companies already, I highly urge you to - they're good people (with awesome products)! You will not be disappointed in any of them!