Race to the Shrine

On Saturday we loaded up the tahoe and headed down to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo to run in their "Race to the Shrine" 5k. At 7 weeks postpartum I wasn't expecting much. Look, I'm even wearing one of Jeff's oversized running shirts instead of a normal cute fitted running shirt.

One of the perks to participating in this fundraising event for the zoo was free admission. Grandma Lori came along to help out with the kiddos while we were running then we all got to explore the zoo afterward. Thanks Lori!!

The run was literally a race to the shrine. See the tower on the top of the mountain? That would be the Will Rogers Shrine. Yes, an actual shrine in honor of Will Rogers the cowboy dude. To be honest I'm not entirely sure that's who it's named after,we didn't have time to stop inside. The road to the shrine is only accessible to cars except for one day a year when a bunch of wackos decide to run up to it. And that's what I now consider myself- a WACKO! It had nothing to do with just having a baby, I was feeling pretty good and able to tread out a 3-4 mile jog at a slow and steady 10 minute mile. I guess I was a little naive with how hard running at a 8.5% gradient increase from 6,800ft to 8,100ft was going to be. As soon as the starting gun was fired you were greeted with what else... a hill. And the hill never. went. away. Needless to say I spent a majority of the incline in a slow jog walking status. The last mile was spent cruising downhill which you would think, hey that's a breeze. Which for the first few minutes it was a much needed break. But man oh man, my knees weren't too happy with me. And my knees STILL aren't happy with me. Either I'm getting too old or running up and down  mountains is not my forte. Jeff finished 9th out of 22 in his 30-34year category, and I finished 12th out of 43 26-29yr olds. I won't bother posting times because frankly it isn't worth remembering! Although makes me wonder what the other 31 women were doing behind me, walking backward? But hey- I ran up a mountain and then ran down it to my beautiful smiling babies and I'm proud of it!

Now the zoo is something that we will be visiting again, preferably when we haven't just worn ourselves out with running and also when it's not thundering and raining like it was on our trip. Luckily while we were out racing, Grandma and the kiddos got to visit the giraffes while the sun was out. Can you believe how many giraffes they have here? If I remember correctly the total was somewhere around 22.

The exhibit was really worth the cost of zoo admission. You could get up close and personal with the beautiful creatures. Since the giraffe is Johanna's favorite animal as you can imagine she was in heaven!

After the race there was a party at the zoo's lodge where zoo keepers walked around with different animals to touch and feel.

At first Johanna wasn't sure what to think of the snakes but after watching a few older boys bravely pet this beautiful orange guy she insisted on giving it a try.

There was also a carousel that we had to check out. Now I wasn't sure if it was just my post-race jello legs or the fact I hadn't been on one in awhile I thought man, this is going a lot faster than a normal carousel. I had to hold on to the horse and Johanna for dear life. Now looking back at the collection of blurry pictures Jeff took I can only confirm that yes, it was indeed a freakishly fast carousel. Also, what is up with the horse behind me? Creepy!

The greatest thing about the Cheyenne Mountain zoo is the accessibility of their animals. We were able to get up close and personal with so many. Here we are at the chicken coup. Johanna is saying "chicken!" wanting to feed them her cookie.

Turns out she was able to feed them some chicken grain or whatever it is these ugly little things eat. And I'm not calling them ugly to be mean, they really were the ugliest little batch of chickens and roosters we'd ever seen.

Surprisingly their disheveled and pecked at feathers and skin weren't at all alarming to Johanna. She chased those things around yelling "Here chicken chickens! Eat! Eat! bawk bawk!"

Sadly, we didn't get to see all the animals due to the rain but were able to make our grand finale stop at the giraffe exhibit. They were staying dry indoors which made it all the easier to take part in the highlight of our day, feeding time!

For two dollars you got to purchase a few hand fulls of romaine lettuce. You would hold out the leaf while an eager giraffe would meander over to stick out his long black tongue and gobble it up.

Johanna loved it!

Lori and I joked that next time we should stop at the grocery store and smuggle in our own lettuce...just kidding!

Despite rain and sore knees we had a great time and can't wait to go back again.