Real David H.

Today I ran my third 10k of the year — and just my seventh 10k ever — in 55:05. It was, in a word, horrible.
The heat and humidity were awful; I’ve dealt with stomach issues on and off for several days; did I mention that it was horrible?

I won’t beat myself up for this. In fact, nearly 12 hours after the fact, I realize even more that I had very little control over what happened today.

Without going into details of my problems since late Wednesday, there was really no way I could probably hydrate for this race. And a good pre-race meal or proper nutrition? Forget about it. OK, maybe I could have done a little better, but I had fought with food for a few days figuring out what would work best. In fact, last night I questioned whether or not I’d go to this race.

While I was running and slowing down mile by mile, I thought a lot about how I would prepare for an “A” race — one that I put it all on the line for — if I got sick the week of the race or the forecast called for highs in the low 90s. I don’t have a complete answer for that just yet, but you better believe I’ll be better prepared.

While this is a race I’d like to quickly forget, the lessons learned today will help carry me through the summer. That may be more valuable than actually have a solid performance.