I Turned Older

Yay!

In the fall of my 39th year, I joined my friend Pete and a larger group for a hike in the high peaks of the Adirondacks. In conversation with one of my fellow hikers, we discovered we were both due to turn 40 the next year, and she asked if I was nervous about turning over into that decade. I'd never felt nervousness, but after consideration later, I decided my best answer would've been, "Shouldn't I be nervous about not turning 40?"

Let's spiral a little further down the memory wormhole. When I turned 35, my partner at the time, who was three years younger, knew I wouldn't be bothered by 40 and so jumped an extra decade with the line, "Just think, in 15 years, you'll be 50!" Not entirely funny ironic aside: I later realized, the person for whom she dropped me six years later was 50 when she made that statement. But back on the track of making this about me, at 35, 50 seemed really old. Touche!

Yesterday, 50 felt like, well, my age, and I was aware of feeling darn happy to make it! In truth, I didn't have the exact anniversary of my birth until 5:30pm yesterday (As my mom says, I wasn't going to miss dinner!), but in the hours of lead up to that, I rode up MT Toby to clear some more ice and wind fallen trees from a storm a week and a half ago, preparation for my friend Amy's trail running race this weekend. She didn't opt for my idea of simply rebranding the event as a Spartan race, although there may be a couple hundred yards of duck and scramble that make the final course!

Some scenarios, trail runners are much faster than mountain bikers!

Yes, my opinion has that as a good way to spend a good day, in the woods, happy to return to civilization without injury, and even arrive home well before 5:30 and mostly before rain soaked me wet! Another perk of growing older: people like to celebrate it, so I received some truly heartening greetings from friends and family, and I'll even count the swanky early 90s Merlin road frame (built by people I knew and respected as excellent life-tutors when I raced as a wee 17 year old junior!) as an early birthday gift!

A big WOO and a big HOO!