[CentOS] enter run level

I have a centos 4 x86_64 machine that has been working fine.
It has software RAID-1.

Now when it boots I get the GRUB screen, I get the very first
screen about loading Init then I get a prompt about:

Enter Run Level:

When I enter 3 nothing happens... This is obviously not a normal boot
situation.

First question: Why this prompt?
Second question: since it is software raid do I run e2fsck /dev/sda1 
then e2fsck /dev/sdb1?
I am booted presently into linux rescue mode. Seems like /dev/md0 is not 
know in linux rescue...

I presume the file system is messed up so I was wanting to run e2fsck. 
It is an ext3 system.

Thanks,

Jerry