Squeak update and the LMJS 15k

So it's now been a week since Squeak's accident and surgery. She's doing great. It's amazing how much fight there is in that little 5 pound dog. Thanks to those of you that have offered to help with the hospital bills, but we are not accepting any help with those - these pups are our responsibility. You are encouraged to donate to my favorite charities - there are links on the right side of this page - thanks.
On Sunday I ran in a 15k (9.3 mile) race in Oakland sponsored by the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders. This was 3 laps around Lake Merritt. I started out at too fast of a pace, passing the 2 mile mark at 16:30 (8:15 mile pace), and knew I'd pay for it later. I slowed my pace and passed the 5k mark at 26:10. At about the 5 mile mark I started to fatigue and the remaining 4 miles were a challenge. I passed the 10k mark at 54:00 and finished the race with a time of 1:22:22. My times for each 5k were 26:10 (8:25 pace), 27:50 (8:57 pace) and then 28:22 (9:07) pace.
I'm a little disappointed that I went out quite so fast, but thats one of the reasons I'm running so many races as part of my training for the Marathon in July. Going out too fast in that event could be disastrous. The good news is that even though I faded later in this 15k, my pace for the race overall was 8:50 which is in the range I was aiming for. This was my longest race ever and my longest run in 20 years.
My next event is the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon in 2 weeks. This is a much larger event than the two local races I've run so far - thousands of runners instead of 100 or 200. Also 13.1 miles is a significant distance. It will be critical that I don't start out faster than my 9 minute target pace or it won't be much fun later in the race...