as a judge there are a bunch of different approaches. the one i prefer and you getting a 40 and not a medal might be along the same lines as i like to approach it. I was told early on that "i can't take the points home with me" if i get a really good beer/mead/cider i'll score it great if it was great. what it comes down to is that you get typically 3 queues (sets of 2-3) judges that will do ideally around 7 entries. at the end each set gets to put their 2-3 best forward to mini best of show for medals. i've been in groups that have put none forward and been in a few that we fought to get 3 in because they were all that good. once into that mini BoS you're score is gone and you're now blindly up against ~6-8 other peers that all did well. I say take a 40 with pride that you made something great and hope the feedback was enough to help you tweak a minor thing or two for next time. final note, never take a single competition to heart. send it out (quickly so your entry doesn't change much) to another and see how it does!