Anyone that knows me suspected this would happen. That I would not only meet my quest of running 40 races in 2017 for my 40th birthday, but that, upon doing so, I was unlikely to take a rest. In fact, as I approached 40 races on October 22, there seemed only one real answer to the question, what’s next? That answer is 52.

For just a moment, the sun breaks through the fog at mile 7 of the Cougar Mountain trail 19.5 mile race on October 28.

Race 41 was at Cougar Mountain in Newcastle, Washington, the same course I ran on July 8th for race 28, when I’d finished that race nearly 25 minutes faster than I’d run it the year before. On October 28, however, I shaved another 11 minutes off my time.

Still, it’s four hours on the race course with nearly 4,000 feet of elevation gain. Yet multi-hour races seem only to drive me to want to do more multi-hour races.

I ran the following weekend’s In Unity We Run marathon in Kent for no other reason than it made me a 33-time marathoner. And, just one week later and 800 miles south, I ran the Mt. Tam 30k in Stinson Beach, California.

The view from the top of Mt. Tamalpais, in Marin County, California.

Fifty-two is definitely within reach.