This is (almost) 40!

Edited 3/15/21

2021 is a big year for me.  That’s right, I turn the big 4-0!!  To be honest, I was dreading it in the last few years of my 30s.  I really didn’t like the idea of turning 30, and now another decade has passed.  Sometime in 2020, I decided that I needed to turn it into something positive and amazing.  Turning 40 is actually awesome.  It means that I’ve made it 4 decades, and that is something to be thankful for.  None of this whining about aging.  Instead, I wanted to celebrate big. 

I spent some time thinking about what I wanted to do to ring in the new decade.  Some people run 40 miles.  Those people are…AWESOME, but I am not one of them!  That is too crazy for me.  Instead, something just moderately crazy sounded good.  One day, while on a run, I had a great idea.  Runs are typically when most of my brilliant ideas appear.  I decided that in 2021, I would run a marathon for each decade of my life.  That means 4 marathons in one year, which is more than I have ever done.  Just the right amount of crazy!

Why celebrate this way?  The marathon is a celebration of life.  People from many different ethnicities and races, size and shapes, ages, men, and women come together to fight the good fight.  We celebrate the amazing things our God-given bodies can do.  We celebrate the strength of our minds as we mentally push through the fatigue.  We enjoy nature and we endure good and bad weather.  We cheer each other on as we all suffer.  Some of us are suffering more than others.  Those who are suffering less are lifting up those who are in the trenches because we have empathy for them.  We have been there once before and know the feeling of pain and the joy of overcoming it.  If you want to renew your faith that humans are good, go to a race.  Watch how everyone is lifting each other up.  No one cares what your political beliefs are on a race course.  Everyone sees other humans fighting hard and just wants to cheer them to the finish and see the joy as they finish. 

The problem was, like many people, I naively believed that races would be happening in 2021.  Let’s just say that there were a lot of ups and downs with canceled races, delayed races, etc.  On top of that, I really came down with a case of burn-out in December through January.  Many of my runs felt hard at a pace that was generally easy for me.  Also, there were some minor niggles and injuries that popped up.  So here I was trying to plan a marathon with my sister, not knowing if any of them would happen.

Luckily, with age comes wisdom.  Right?  Thirty-year-old me would have powered through the tempo workouts insisting that I would get the pace I wanted.  Instead, I took a little time off, then pulled back the pace, and just got the mileage in. 

Today, my sister and I finally were able to complete a marathon together!  I didn’t know what I would be capable of as far as pace, but I’m really thrilled with how it turned out despite it not being a PR.  It was FUN!  I’m really excited for my sister to tell her story, and she will do a guest blog post for me.  Let’s just say we are both 100% thrilled with marathon #1 for 2021!  We went to Skidaway Island in Georgia, and I have to say that the race director did a fantastic job of putting the race together!  You should check it out next year!  There was beautiful scenery and really beautiful weather despite a bit of a warm-up as the race continued. 

So here’s to 40 and so much hope ahead for the future of racing for all of you!