40

Well Oct 21st 2012 was my 40th birthday.  How would I cope?
I admit to struggling with the prospect of turning 30, 10 years ago.  Though I had a full-time job, a mortgage/home and a baby already when I turned 30, I thought that birthday signified the end of the "fun" years and that I was moving into the "responsibility" years, never to look back.  I know I'm making it sound very dramatic, but that was the trauma turning 30 was to me.

my scary jack-o-lantern cake (40)

So 10 years later what kind of mess would I be to turn 40... well actually not really much of a mess at all, because I realize how wrong I was about the thirties, they were in fact so much fun! (even though I was usually being responsible too)  When I turned 30 I hadn't made my way back to sports yet since having baby Cadence, I had very few friends who had had children yet also; these 2 things probably greatly influenced my outlook back then. But shortly after 30, I got back into swimming, running and triathlon.  And then many of my friends starting having babies and I made many new friends who had kids too.  I was having fun with sports, fun with friends, fun with kids, fun with Bill, my younger husband.  Life in my 30s was leaps and bounds more rewarding then I could ever have imagined!  Quite a few amazing things got accomplished that I wouldn't have believed on that 30th birthday.  And I don't plan on it stopping because I'm now in my 40s.  I now have many inspirational older friends showing me it can be done.

But of course there is still the getting older factor to deal with, so I discovered the Niagara marathon/half marathon races were occurring on my birthday.  My first running race I've a record of was the 5k in Niagara  in 1995 (I was 23)  I don't have a record of another running race until after I had turned 30 (turning 30 probably pushed me to get moving again, so for that I am grateful for the big day) and I did my 1st 1/2 marathon in 2004 (at 32) also in Niagara.  So the location, the age, it all added up to doing the Niagara 1/2 marathon again, this time on my 40th birthday.  But I decided to bury the number a little further and run 3 consecutive races just prior to this, so that it would be my 40th running race on record (since that 1st at Niagara in 1995) on my 40th birthday.

Well how did the old lady do???
I really couldn't have ask for a nicer day for this run and the course, I soon remembered how beautiful it is, all along the Niagara River ending at the Falls, fall colours in full force.  I finished in 1:44:36, my 2nd fastest (of the 11th halves I've now done) and only my 2nd time nudging under 1:45:00.  The only other/better time was Hamilton 1/2 which has a significant downhill for a large portion, which distorts it a little as my PB.  I was over 10 minutes faster than my 1st half 8 years earlier on the same course.  My result stats are quite satisfying too, 246 overall out of over 2000 runners, 66th female out of 1281 girls, and 8th in my new age group out of 194  (neat to note there were almost 500 more runners in the race than in 2004, the increase in the number of people getting out and participating is fantastic).  Being in sport and ageing up to a new age group can be one of the nice benefit of getting older, if you need to find a benefit, but I think getting older is okay anyways!  Just live your days!  

the culprits who embarrassed me
 at Hard Rock after the race
know who they are

Summary of running races recorded:

Year /KM	5	8	10	21.1	25	30	32	42.2	Total races	Total KM
1995	1								1	5.0
2003	1	1							2	13.0
2004	1			1					2	26.1
2005	5	2							7	41.0
2008	1			1					2	26.1
2009		1		2		1		2	6	164.6
2010	2	1	2	3		1			9	131.3
2011	1	1							2	13.0
2012				4	2	1	1	1	9	238.6
Total races	12	6	2	11	2	3	1	3	40
Total KM	60.0	48.0	20.0	232.1	50.0	90.0	32.0	126.6		658.7

Some of my other race stats can be found here