I haven't blogggged in a while.  I finally ran the race I've been training for for the last few months.  Ok, here's the account:  The day dawned about 45 degrees and breezy.  I live about 2 miles from the start line on NCSU's centennial campus, so I jogged over there carrying an extra pair of socks and a toque in a plastic bag from Bed, Bath and Beyond.  A few minutes before the start it started raining halfway steady and the wind was picking up.  I got a spot on the line behind a few ladies with FuelBelts that decided they deserved a spot with the Kenyans from Chapel Hill at the front of the crowd.  When the gun went off, they broke into a brisk walk and I dodged them gracefully and latched onto the back of the back of the lead pack which formed about 50m into the race.  The Kenyans at the front jerked the pace all over the first 3 miles or so.  Every downhill they would blast off, and every uphill they would slam on the brakes.  It was driving me insane, and I really didn't feel like things were going to go very well.  At around 4 miles they didn't hit the brakes on a hill, and I dropped off.  At the time I was crushed.  But as I got to stretch out and pace myself I started feeling great and just pushing it.  I came through 5 in 25:25 and 10k in 31:50 all alone and really hitting on all cylinders.  from 7-9 we were out on an open stretch and the heavens opened.  We were getting poured on and the wind was crazy out of the north...east.  One of the Kenyans came off the back and I picked him up, he hung on me and drafted for the rest of the race, but I was feeling pretty confident I'd outkick him at the finish, and if he ever felt like taking the front, that would be nice, so I didn't do anything to get rid of him.  I hit 10 in 51:10 and 11 in 56:16.  As we headed for a big downhill finish, I pulled away from my companion and had another one in my sight, but he heard me slapping and huffing down the hill, so he sped up enough to hold me off, and I ran out of road to catch him.  I ended up just under 1:07 at 5:06 per mile.  I ended up getting the prize for first American finisher, even though a college guy stayed with the front pack the whole way.  I'd like to have earned it, but free money ain't bad.  That's a lot of Powerbars.  I've been looking for more races around here, but almost none have decent prizes, and the ones that do are infiltrated by 3rd class Kenyans that I can't beat yet, so I'm back to the woods to get ready for a big race whenever it comes up again.