First Year of My 40 by 40 Goal

my littlest training partner, snoozing away during a hike

I turned 39 last week, so I have officially finished the first year of my two year goal to complete 40 races before I turn 40.  One year down, one to go.

I completed 26 races the first year, though my count is now at 27 now since I ran the Vineyard 5k after my birthday.

27 races out of 40 means I'm 2/3 of the way to my goal and only need 13 more to reach it. In fact, I'm on track to finish by the end of this year- 6 months early. I could spread the races out, but I kind of want to be done so I can take a break.

It's surprised me how tiring this has all been. Not that my training schedule has been over the top, but competing in races when I'm out of shape is physically tiring and making sure the kiddos are being taken care of while I'm running all these races and Mr M works is draining in its own way. We have a great babysitter as well as friends who will watch them, but I just hate leaving the kiddos. I think it's residual helicopter parenting that I haven't quite managed to kick.

I should be several races over my goal by New Year's Eve (the last race I have planned) and that's the point where I will call it good. I may run a few races in 2017, but I won't won't have a specific goal like in years past.

For several years I had a goal to run one race a month, and that was a good goal to have and it put me in a good place to start my 40 by 40 goal. I need a break from the intense race schedule and I want to really focus on my training. I could focus on my training while still working on my 40 by 40 goal, and I'll do the best I can in the next six months, but there's only so much I can do. I'm still breastfeeding Ocean and Mr M's still working a crazy schedule, so I don't have a ton of time and energy to devote to the treadmill.

I will say that searching out races of various distances and types has helped me find new races that I'd like to do again and has also helped me get out of my comfort zone of running the same races over and over.

In the meantime, here's the distances I've completed so far: 
1 mile
4k
5k (18 of them!)
4 mile
4.8 mile
half marathon (virtual)
13.6 mile
full marathon (virtual)
10k kayak race
volunteered at a race

Here's the types of races I've completed:
trail runs
road races
mixed surface races
cross country
obstacle run
mud run
glow runs
corn maze
kayak race

And here's some added fun to the races:
raced while very pregnant (38 weeks!)
raced while pushing one boy in the stroller
raced while pushing both boys in the stroller
came in first in my age group
finished dead last
ran two races less than 12 hours apart (different days)
ran two races in the same day (twice!)