What a fun, fun tradition! This year the tradition was even better, for my friend, Tonya, got to join me! The race starts at the Forestry Center, runs down to the Rose Garden, turnaround at the parking lot of the Japanese Garden, then back UP to finish inside the zoo. There were over 2300 preregistered runners this year, biggest yet. Plus lots more doing the race day registration, for the weather was dry and sunny!!! At least for the race...
The first pic is looking towards the start -- they did start in two waves this year, but I think it needs to be a little more organized even yet. One problem was that the porta-potty lines went across the start area. You can see it was sunny and upper-30Fs.
Here we are, waiting to start. There aren't numbers on the bibs - they just say gobble, gobble, gobble...
The first half of the race is down hill!
Almost to the turnaround, we had a view of Mt. Hood, and the clouds were starting to build up in the sky. Mt. Hood is behind that tall building, in the far distance, that your eyes pick out better than the camera!
What goes down, must go back up...
The finish was extra crowded. Traditionally, the zoo is almost empty - if you're wearing the "gobble gobble gobble" bib you get in free, and everyone else pays full admission. This year, the zoo was open to anyone, as a way to say thank you for getting a bond levy passed for zoo improvements. The runners each got a coupon for free zoo entry until the end of March.
After finishing, we did a fun zoo tour! Portland Zoo has a new baby elephant!
There's an aviary of African birds -- beautiful birds! My camera doesn't it justice --
Hippopotamus, giraffe, bats...
Reptiles, meerkats -- the paper mache turkeys in the meerkat enclosure were given to them on Wednesday, with animal treats inside...
And the Portland zoo has a great penguin exhibit!
We fit right in! Nothing like being a penguin!
More zoo animals...
The zoo gift shop...
This is the logging train exhibit by the Forestry Center. When we came out of the gift shop to head to the car, it was raining a really cold rain. Perfect timing for the race and zoo tour!
