We had a family gathering in New Bern over the Easter holiday. I was in search of a race to run. The closest was in Snow Hill, about a half hour drive away. Mary Jo N. is the race director and started the race to help people get fit and lose weight. Snow Hill gave the race great support. The local police served as the escort - no guy on bike for this one. I also seem to recall that the Fire Department had the main street blocked to make sure everything was safe.
We started at the North end of the business district and ran past a number of historic homes. We made a couple of turns down other residential streets, crossing our original outbound route near the start. There was a guy pushing a stroller in front of me. You better believe it is frustrating to be running all out and getting beat by someone pushing a stroller. Around mile one we came to a small hill and that was the end of the stroller. I slotted into third place which is where I stayed to the end. We made a couple more turns back onto the main street, heading south of the business district and turned about to come back. The first and second place runners kept looking over their shoulders to see if someone was gaining on them. They had enough of a gap that they didn't need to worry about me. There was a small hill toward the end and we finished where we started. 
Computerized race results came in and we had a great awards ceremony with lots of awards and cheering. My third place finish was even good for a little prize money. Probably just enough to pay for the gas to get to the race. So, I have now turned pro. First and second place were two brothers (34 and 44 years old) from Morehead. It turns out they traveled farther than I did -- if you count my start as New Bern. My time was 19:35 (6:18 pace) which was good, but not great. It rained on the way to the race, but stopped before race time and even cleared as the morning progressed. 
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