Thanks,
Yeah that's what I thought too, so I went looking around. This will be my first road bike and I didn't want to spend the money for a good bike and find out this isn't for me or for whatever other reason end up with a $800-$1000 bike stored. So I set a very low budget of $400ish.
I found a triace that seemed to have semi decent components and a decent frame. I figured it was something decent to start with and was withing my budget. But then I found a thread about a group of people who went with fetish bikes and eBay parts and ended up building awesome bikes for $300-$400. So I figured why not, I'll learn a lot, and have a very nice bike (b.y my standards).
Either way I go, this will be my trial bike and if all goes well my next bike will be something nice. Sort of get my feet wet.