Thoughts on Finishing My 40 by 40 Goal

I started my 40 by 40 goal at the end of June 2015, when I turned 38.
I completed my 40 by 40 goal two years later, by running a half marathon on my 40th birthday.

Being an overachiever made it too easy to run more than I'd originally planned, so I actually did 50 races in that time.

I'd originally planned on a wider variety of distances and types of races, but had to scale back when Mr M's work schedule got crazy busy. Despite that, I managed to complete a decent variety of races. I'd hoped to do a duathlon or triathlon, a relay (like Ragnar), an international race, a road marathon, and maybe a bike race, but I think those are the only ones I really missed out on.

Overall, I enjoyed completing this goal. It was definitely one of my more ambitious goals, and it took a lot of time, effort, and money, but I do feel that it was worth it. Not that it was all sunshine and roses, because it wasn't. It was exhausting and stressful and a lot of work.

I did get a bit burned out at one point, which is why I hit #40 early: I kind of wanted to be done. But then there were more races I still wanted to run, so I kept going. And then I had to run enough races to get to an even number, because ocd.

I've mentioned it before, but one issue I did run into was that I felt the races interfered with my training so that my times didn't improve for most of the time I was working on my goal. To be fair, I was pregnant or nursing for the first 19 months, and that definitely had an impact on my speed. Ocean stopped nursing back in January, my race schedule has tapered off, and my times have started to improve. Coincidence? I think not.

Purposely signing up for races in a variety of locations and distances forced me out of my comfort zone on many occasions, which is good for me. I don't anticipate making and completing a similar goal, which means I won't be running lots and lots of races anytime soon. Expanding my horizons has helped me find new favorite races, along with races I don't need to run again.

50 races: distances
2 x 1 mile
2 x 2 miles
1 x 4k
34 x 5k
1 x 3.5 miles
2 x 4 miles
1 x 4.8 miles
1 x 10k
2 x 13.1 miles
1 x 13.6 miles
1 x 26.2 miles
1 x 10k kayak
1 x race volunteer

50 races: circumstances, surfaces, etc
pregnant, wearing a kilt, pushing the jogger with one boy, pushing the jogger with both boys, with all three kiddos, wearing a costume, in 20* temps

mixed surface, road, trail, in a corn maze, virtual, cross country, mud run, obstacle run, glow run, kayak race, in a vineyard, predict your time, color run, same race/new course, uphill, in an orchard, in a quarry, out of state

1st in age group, walked an entire race, volunteered at a water stop in a race, 2 races in 12 hours (different days), evening race, 2 races in the same day, 2nd in age group, spent the night in a hotel before a race, ran an entire race (several times), registered with a paper form I mailed in, ran a race for the 7th time in a row, ran a 5k PR, ran a race for the 6th time in a row/1st time by myself/PR for the course, camped before a race

Sunshine's first solo race, River's first race that he ran (not just rode in the jogger)

50 races = 202.4 miles run and walked + 6.2 miles kayaked

	Date	Event	Distance	Event Type
1.	July 2015	4th of July 5k	5k	Pregnant
2.	August	4 Mile Fun Run	4 miles	Road Race
3.	September	All Terrain	5k	Mixed surface
4.	October	Hill Valley Half	13.1 miles	Virtual half marathon
5.	October	Corn Maze 5k	5k	Corn Maze, 1st in age group
6.	October	Kilted Trail 5k	5k	Kilted race
7.	November	Trail Half	13.6 miles	Trail Half, last finisher
8.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	Road Race
9.	December	Veteran’s 5k	5k	Mixed surface
10.	December	Army Virtual Marathon	26.23 miles	Virtual marathon
11.	January 2016	New Year’s Day 5k	5k	Road race
12.	February	Frostbite 5k	5k	Cross country race
13.	February	Mud Run	4.8 miles	Mud run
14.	March	4k Walk	4k	Walk
15.	March	March 5k	5k	Road race
16.	March	Pi Day Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k Walk
17.	March	10 mile race	Not applicable	Water stop volunteer
18.	March	Obstacle Race	5k	Obstacle run
19.	April	Glow Run	5k	Glow Run, 1st of 2 races in 12 hours
20.	April	April 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 2nd of 2 races in 12 hours
21.	April	Evening Run	5k	Evening run
22.	May	10k Kayak Race	10k	Kayak race
23.	May	May 5k	5k	1st of 2 races in same day
24.	May	Evening CC Race	5k	Evening cross country, 2nd of 2 races in same day
25.	June	June 5k	5k	Pushing jogger, 1st of 2 races in same day
26.	June	1 Mile Glow Run	1 mile	Pushing jogger with both boys, 2nd of 2 races in same day, glow run
27.	June	Vineyard 5k	5k	Vineyard run
28.	July	July 5k	5k	Road race
29.	August	Predict Your Time 5k	5k	Predict your time
30.	August	August 5k	5k	Road race
31.	August	NPS 100th Virtual 10k	10k	Virtual 10k run
32.	August	4 Mile Run	4 miles	Road race
33.	September	Labor Day 5k	5k	With all 3 kiddos
34.	September	1 Mile Color Run	1 mile	Color run, Sunshine’s first solo race, River’s first race
35.	September	3.5 Mile Trail Run	3.5 miles	Trail run
36.	October	Run Long & Prosper Virtual 5k	5k	Virtual 5k run
37.	October	Flat Trail 5k	5k	Travel to race, trail run, ran w/o stopping, 2nd in age group
38.	October	Halloween Trail 5k	5k	Trail run, in costume, in a vineyard
39.	November	Two Mile Road Race	2 miles	2 miles, road race
40.	November	Two Mile Cross Country Race	2 miles	2 miles, cross country race, paper entry form
41.	November	Turkey Trot	5k	All 3 kiddos, 7th year in a row running this race
42.	December	December 5k	5k	5k road race, new course, temps in the 20s
43.	December	New Year’s Eve 5k	5k	5k glow run
44.	March 2017	March 5k	5k	Road race, PR
45.	April	April 5k	5k	Uphill
46.	May	Orchard run	5k	In an orchard
47.	May	Quarry	5k	In a quarry
48.	June	June 5k	5k	6th year in a row running this race, 1st time by myself
49.	June	Utah 5k	5k	Out of state 5k
50.	June	Glacier Half marathon	13.1 miles	Road half