Women in their forties

I hit forty back in January and I thought I was taking it in stride. In fact I barely thought about it at all. But then in early July I did a triathlon and when I got to the body marking station they asked me my age. I had to think about it and came to the conclusion that I was indeed 40. I told them the truth and they etched it in permanent marker on my calf. 40. There it sat. I have to admit that several times during the race I looked back there to see it. Shocked me each time. But the race ended (I like to think I finished with dignity. I had hoped that I would hear some astounded gasps as I whisked past people and they saw my age and then spontaneously yelled out 'She's 40????' in a tone of disbelief, but that never happened- the only gasps were from my own ragged breathing.) I washed the number off my leg and then forgot about it again. Until my physical. As I sat in the flimsy paper gown on her table, my doctor kept tossing out the phrase, "Well, women in their forties....." I let her say it a few times, but then I realized she thought she was referring to me and I had to put a stop to it. I made her rephrase it to "Woman in her forty." I mean, clearly, I am not in my forties for at least 5 more months. She was a sport and humored me. But 'woman in her forty-one' is not going to cut it, I can see that already.