For the third time, I was able to call home, and when Jenny asked how I did I said, [me] "I won!" [Jenny] "The whole thing?" [me] "Yes, the whole thing!" This was the race that I wasn't sure actually existed. I heard back from the race director on Thursday to say that the race would be held. There were three races, 1 mile, 5K, and 15K. There ended up being a total of 67 runners. I arrived at Starkey just before 7:00 so I could sign up for the race. I waited around for a bit until the race people showed up. I turned in my application and asked for my bib, you can see it below in the picture. A plain piece of paper with a number written in marker on it. Since I was the first person to ask for my bib, I was given number 1. Once I had my number pinned on, I went out for a warm up run of just under two miles, including some strides. I knew that water along the course would be minimal so I though I would wear my fuel belt. But during the warm up , I realized it would be a mistake, that I should not wear the belt and ditch the shirt also since it was quickly warming up. The race started a little bit late while they sorted out the paperwork. People lined up but were a little confused about where the start actually was. The volunteers announced the start of the race but no one started because it wasn't very clear what they were saying, so they had to do the start all over again. So, the race finally started and I quickly got onto my pace, I was hoping to hold a 6:30 pace, which I did pretty easily for the first mile. Once the second mile started, I was at a 6:35 pace or so I thought. It turned out I had my garmin on average pace, and the second mile was actually 6:42. I had difficulty breaking 6:40 after that and started going into survival mode. I was running all by myself. I was carrying one water bottle with me which I dropped off at about 2 miles. Found the turn around finally and started back. Stopped briefly to grab a small cup of water and take a gel with 4 miles left, then continued on. I started feeling a little bit better the closer I got back. Just after the turn around I was able to see the second and third place guys and then other people and saw that I had a pretty big gap. But I had trouble knowing exactly how big it was so this actually helped keep me from totally falling apart and hanging on. I was determined to at least try and average under 6:52 pace. Finally, the finish line was in sight, great to be done. I headed over to the race table and they congratulated me and let me pick out from the prizes. There were various things donated by a local salon, so I picked out the gift basked below. This certainly wasn't a fancy race or well organized, it was just about running and helping out a great cause - American Cancer Society. And since this was my first 15K ever, then it is a PR by default. The times and splits are all from my garmin. The race director told me that they had accidentally made the course too long and were going to adjust the times, so I'll have to see what they come up with, but I don't think they were too far off. The only downside was that I was hoping to run about 2 minutes faster, since that would have been the time predicted by my last marathon, but I wasn't quite all on today, so I'll be happy with the good parts.
Splits: 6:30, 6:42, 6:46, 6:42, 6:52, 6:39, 6:43, 6:46, 6:44, 2:51 (.43@6:36) While I was running the race, Jenny was at home with the boys harvesting some carrots from the garden:  And, she took a picture of a lizard eating a dragon fly: 
Later in the afternoon, I went out on the boat with my Dad, he did some fishing and I just enjoyed being out on the water and the salty air.
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