raleigh, north carolina

greetings from raleigh (technically, wake forest, as i write this), north carolina!

our flight from laguardia airport to raleigh, was uneventful, but notable for the tiny size of the plane we flew on. it was something of a surprise as we passed through the boarding gate and found ourselves walking down a staircase to the tarmac. a small school bus drove us over to the plane, which we boarded by climbing an equally small metal staircase.

in a first, for carry on luggage, the overhead storage rack was so small - how small? - i literally had to unpack my knapsack to fit it in there! this was a garden-variety l.l. bean pack - which is going to double as my main drop bag for the race tomorrow! so i took out the laptop and book i would read on the flight, and after some minor pushes and shoves - in it went! the cabin itself had a main aisle, with a pair of seats on either side for about 15 rows. it was a tight fit, but aside from the 45+ minute delay in take-off, a pleasant enough flight.

the flight itself took just an hour and 10 minutes. when we landed there was a light drizzle as we made the short walk over to the terminal. but on the drive to wake forest the rain had picked up significantly. given the forecast for rain and thundershowers saturday, i hoped that all this rain now would work itself out of town by saturday.

that may be wishful thinking. as i write this on friday morning - even with dry skies and birds chirping outside - still have that ominous forecast of thundershowers in place for tomorrow. and yesterday the race director sent out a foul weather email alert - which detailed pre-race dinner contingency plans should heavy rains intrude on the pasta supper. so seems like it's not really a question of whether, but now one of how much, (and will there be thundershowers?) rain will we see tomorrow.



but, not going to let that worry me right now. wet or dry, unless flood-like conditions blanket umstead, there are a lot of miles to run, walk, and maybe even swim, this weekend :)