Don't mind the dust around the edges of this blog--it's been neglected for a couple of years now.
I skipped my 40th birthday challenge due to a knee injury. I wound up getting a tattoo on my birthday instead.
Then
last year I skipped my birthday challenge because I was eight months pregnant.
This year marks my 42nd birthday. Having been a fan of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy since I was a teenager, I’ve been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. I also was really looking forward to being able to do a proper challenge this year. But between having an 11 month old (not to mention the almost-five-year-old) and the pandemic, I just couldn’t make a full-day challenge a reality.
So instead I’ve planned a two-part month-long challenge involving two things I wanted to do anyway: get back into running and give back to the writing community.
For the running part of the challenge, my goal is to run 42 miles during the course of the month. I started out slow because I had surgery to repair a hernia at the beginning of October. November 1st was my first run post-surgery. I did a two-mile run (which I wound up doing as a run/walk) to kick things off. I didn’t plan out the runs very well (OK, I honestly didn’t plan them at all until today) in terms of balancing rest days and miles per run, so now I pretty much have to do four-mile runs every other day to finish my goal. I’ve run 23 miles so far and I’m really hoping I can finish strong.
For the giving back part, I decided I wanted to read and review 42 picture books that have been released this year. In addition to this, I’m connecting with the authors of the books to build my writing community and help support my peers. This part of the challenge has been making me so happy. My fellow writers have been so warm, kind, and generous. It’s been an absolute pleasure to read so many wonderful books. I’ve read and reviewed 25 books as of today.
While I’m happy with running and reading, I’m a little disappointed not to have a created an elaborate challenge related to Hitchhikers like I had initially been imagining. So maybe tomorrow (which is actually my birthday) I’ll just grab my towel and try to find a cow that’s willing to be eaten…
