Ringing in year number 40 with a sunrise, a group of amazing friends and a workout. How blessed am I?

I entered a new age group last week; as I was thinking about how I wanted to celebrate my birthday, I remembered how fun the run my neighborhood pal, Laurel, organized for her 40th was. I wanted to replicate it, but since—gasp—not all my friends are runners, I tweaked it a bit. (Plus, I’ll be honest: I wanted good pics for an entry here, but I didn’t want to carry my camera on a run.) Enter birthday boot camp.

The plan: meet at a local park at 5:30 a.m. We’d do a strength/cardio combo: run small lap over two wooden bridges–it took between 2-3 minutes to run–and use various playground equipment to build our muscles. In my email, I promised a good workout, but guaranteed there would be no burpees.

I hate burpees.

I also promised goodie bags. How can you celebrate a birthday without them?

Amazingly, 20 women said they were up for it, and thankfully, Sarah Johnson, a Stroller Strides instructor extraordinaire who happens to around 32 weeks pregnant, said she’d help run it and be photographer. I asked her because she owns all the requisite tools: a whistle, a stop watch, enthusiasm that is so contagious you can’t help but try hard, and the organizational skills to keep 20 women sweating and laughing. If you can’t tell, I think she’s amazing.

Lunging. It’s what’s for breakfast.

This is a side shuffle. Good for us runners to remember to move in directions other than forwards.

The routine went like this: run a lap, come back and pick one of four stations:
—Lunging and side shuffles
—Push-ups and jump ups (or squats or squat jumps…your quads do the picking)
—Pull-ups and planks
—Tricep dips and step-ups on a picnic table bench

I always give a thumb’s up when I plank. Mostly because I’m just happy not to be doing burpees.

At each station, you’d do one exercise for 60 seconds, rest 15 seconds, do the other one for 60 seconds, then run a lap, ending at a station you weren’t at last time.

The exercises were all levels: these were pull-ups for those of us, including myself, that couldn’t do a “real” one. Or didn’t want to do an assisted one on the monkey bars. Not exactly Cross Fit, but good enough for me.

We did the full routine once, and that took about 35 minutes, so we abbreviated the second round. Two stations (four exercises), one lap, two stations, one lap.

Yoga instructor Bine going all badass on the push-ups. Must be all that time she spends doing sun salutations. We used the mushroom things behind her for jump-ups.

Katie, in black, was recovering from a 50 miler, while Amanda, in pink, was resting her angry calf for an upcoming half-marathon, so they were officially the injured runners. But they don’t look like it here.

The workout took about 50 minutes total, and then we headed for the good stuff: coffee, homemade granola, and a few other treats.

Chocolate cupcakes: *that’s* what’s for breakfast.

Some of my fave things: nuun, Gu, peanut M’n’M’s, Justin’s nut butter and Shiner Bock.

20 women whose glutes were sore the following day because I turned 40. I’m honored.

As I stare down the other side of 40, things that collect dust and promote clutter become less appealing. Instead, the things I can’t seem to get enough of–time with friends, laughter, me-time–are my celebratory priorities. And trust me: all my priorities were in order on that amazing morning.

Thank you to all who came to sweat. And for anybody else celebrating a birthday this year (I know you’re out there!), I highly suggest this way of ringing in a new year over happy hour. Or maybe in addition to happy hour.

Show me whatcha got, 40: I’m ready for you!