Rim to Rim

 Pre-race

 Today was a beeeeautiful day! I signed up for yet another race. And yet again, barely trained for it (i blame the She-Beast who has started waking up at 4AM again). And yet again, i was mad at myself for not training. And considered ever-so-briefly bailing on the plan. But the plan? It was a good one. So i stuck with it. It included a sure-fire way of getting me and the family to spend a day at the Royal Gorge. A destination on my list of places to see since we moved to Colorado, ahem, 4 1/2 years ago.

We woke the kids (oh, except Soren who was up promptly at 4:11AM) and were on the road by 6 for the hour and a half drive to the Gorge. I am blessed with fantastic road-tripping children (i realize 90 minutes isn't long, but they're great in the car which i appreciate). Kristen and her family joined us for the fun.

The weather couldn't have been better--seventies; clear, blue skies; lots of sunshine; a breeze over the river. The race started up-up-up hill (and i thought, who the hell planned this route?). But going uphill, when i actually looked up and not at my feet, was gorgeous. Great views. And you know, what goes up, must come down. So it was a nice downhill run to the finish. My goal was to finish in 36 minutes and i finished in 33. So i was very pleased with that (especially since i hadn't run in 3 weeks). My IT band was SCREAMING after the race, so i need to start working on strengthening some of those supporting muscles. I loved having my family there to cheer me on.

 Our pre-race stances. Look out!

 My mad dash to the finish

We spent the rest of the day exploring the park. The bridge, the gorge, the mountain man post, the petting zoo, the incline train, the carousel, the air tram. Pizza. Ice cream. The kids had a great time with each other and got to run wild a bit, which is nice sometimes. Good stuff. I didn't get the greatest pictures, but it was a really fantastic day. (Random fact: I have been to the Royal Gorge before. There's a picture somewhere of me, my dad, my sister and brother. My brother is ONE in the picture. He is now 27. Ho-lee crap. And all of the attractions at the Gorge now? The trains? The animals? Not there then. We went and looked at the big hole and the big bridge and said, "Is that all there is here?").

 The above picture was taken, appropriately, at the petting zoo.

 On the incline train to the bottom of the Gorge

 The view of the bridge from below

 Little known fact: Doug is not fond of heights. Like, at all.

On the aerial tramway above the gorge/Arkansas River