I just turned 40!

The decade years are the Big Ones. I’ve been spending the past couple of days considering how young I still feel (24 and a halfish?) and waiting for the idea of being a 40something to sink in. I am grateful that looks don’t automatically go on birthdays, like a timer runs out. I’m told I look very young, but I’m pretty sure I’m moving into the “looks good for my age” stage of the game.

One really good thing about turning 40 is that I move into a new age group. Now instead of competing against younger runners, I’ll be competing against older runners. This will do nothing to make me faster, but it’s nice to think about anyway. My first new age group race is February 21 in Prospect Park. The Cherry Tree 10-miler is an awesome race and I highly recommend it!  Turning 40 also makes me a Master Runner, which also doesn’t bring any tangible perks, but makes me sound cool.

Most people use the new year to re-evaluate their life and set goals, etc. but I always use my birthday.  I wish I had some sort of earth-shattering revelation for this large birthday, but things are pretty well on track at the moment.  The Next Important Thing in my life is applying for graduate school in the fall, but that’s been on the back burner for awhile and isn’t really age-related.  The closest things I have to “goals” are continuing to train for long distances–another marathon in the fall and my first 50k.  Between that and possibly being a student again, the fourth decade of my life will get off to a busy start.

Here’s to the next ten!