Catching Up - Gasparilla 15k, BDR Half Marathon, RnR DC Marathon

My first tri of this year is coming up this weekend.  My first tri as a pro.  Scary stuff.  Before I get into that race, let me recap what I've been doing.

Training
Gasparilla 15k - 1:09:04
Training
Best Damn Race Orlando Half Marathon - 1:38:57
Training
Rock n' Roll DC Marathon - 3:36:38
Training

I guess I have developed allergies because I had serious congestion and sore throat before Gasparilla and wasn't 100% for BDR either.  I had the option of not doing Gasparilla but did it anyway because I needed a race. It had been almost 4 months since I did any racing.  It felt good even though I felt like I was going to die in the last mile of 15k.

See the progression yourself:

Here's some BDR:

This was a great race! The course has a lot of straight away's, very few turns.  This is great for me because I am still working on following the tangents.  I didn't feel any hiccups during the race. Donuts, bagels, coffee, and hot chocolate were available in the morning and after the race.  I was really appreciative of the hot chocolate at the end.  There were great food selections and beer at the end as well.  Around mile 8 - 10 I lost the energy to keep running.  I wasn't necessarily tired or hurting anywhere.  I was just mentally done.  Thankfully around mile 10 I was able to get my motivation back and finished strong.  This mental fatigue/check out reared its ugly head during the Rock n' Roll DC as well starting at mile 14 and in full effect by mile 16.

The way the weather is in the photo is how it was all day.  From mile 1 until 3 or 4 in the afternoon.  I was soaked and cold.  Thankfully running kept me somewhat warm, but about 2 minutes after I crossed the finish line I was freezing.  This course was good, but challenging.  The sites were nice.  There is a HUGE hill at mile 6 and mile 22.  I definitely messed up and spent too much energy trying to make up time lost climbing the hill at mile 6.  Lesson learned.  Just skip the mile and continue on until I get to the last 5 - 10k and then try to pick up the speed if the energy is there.  Instead of losing 11 minutes, I would have only lost 90 seconds.  I enjoyed the rest of my time in DC hanging out with friends and seeing the memorials, museums, and a couple of breweries.  

I would recommend any of these races.  They are all well organized, great courses.  I wouldn't recommend RnR DC for someone trying to BQ unless you can train with hill.