As Barnus calls out for the racers to go, they leap onto their shells and start off down the hill.  Mud flies, spraying around the bottoms of the shells.  Several of the racers appear to have come up with the idea of using their hands to scoop themselves along, a young man and a young woman hitting against each other and taking a hard spill.  A soldier rolls down the hill after slipping as he comes to the edge.<br/><br/>As the shells are truly out, it looks as though there are relatively few non-Delvers who hit the slope properly.  One of them is Riset, pushing himself forward next to Phelypsis and keeping more or less up to speed with her.  "Gonna beat you down there!" he shouts out over the shouts and screams of the crowd up by the inn.  Then the andra's top falls open and the guard's eyebrows raise up to nearly his hairline.  "Holy shit!" is the last that she can hear of him as he continues to paddle his way down, not losing the speed that she did by covering herself up.  At almost exactly half way down the hill, he's got the lead.<br/><br/>Behind Phelypsis and Riset are the Elvish Gent who is on his stomach trying to use aerodynamics to his advantage, just a bit behind the barbarian.  The gnome and the draconian are next to each other just an arm's reach behind.  The draconian looks to be struggling to keep his shell moving, his weight pushing down too much into the mud.  The gnome, meanwhile, stopped to grab a glass of ale before kicking off and is spinning about on the shell, just not making the kind of progress it would take to win.<br/><br/>Current Standings<br/><div class="codeheader">Code: <a class="codeoperation" href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="return smfSelectText(this);">[Select]</a></div><pre style="margin: 0; padding: 0;"><code class="bbc_code">Riset:       |----5----10    xx    xx|<br/>Phelypsis:   |----5--- xx    xx    xx|<br/>Elvish Gent: |----5-   xx    xx    xx|<br/>Gnome:       |----x    xx    xx    xx|<br/>Draconian:   |----x    xx    xx    xx|<br/>Nuria:       |----5--- xx    xx    xx|</code></pre><br/><em>Posted for the rest of the non-Delver racers in case Nuria gets a 10+ and wants to mess with someone!</em>