No surprise, it was cold in Oceanside. I've frozen my ass of many years in the Oceanside harbor and this year did not disappoint. The swim was really cold. Lucky for me, I had my TYR Freak of Nature wetsuit and I managed to come out of the water in 5th place. At that point Andy Potts had a solid 2 minute lead on us.
I guess in California, "a marine layer" really means rain. Luckily I packed my arm warmers, which came in very handy on the bike. Matt Lieto was making fun of me at the start because I kept complaining about the cold and wet, when really I love the hard conditions.
The ride was hard from the start, with Ambrose setting a hard pace early. Just before the big hills, the second group caught up. As soon as the group caught up, Ambrose and Griffo decided to attack. I made the decision to go with them and we managed to put a big gap in the group for about 20 miles, but Lieto and Jesse were able to bridge the gap and come into transition with us. Never have I been so thankful to have Shimano Di2 in a race. I really would have struggled to change gears with my cold fingers if I had normal levers.
I had a really bad transition. My fingers were so cold I couldn't undo my helmet strap. With the quality of runners heading out of transition and me still struggling with my helmet I had a little panic attack and left my PowerBar gels and run visor behind.
I managed to close the gap to the front group quickly. We all hit the first mile hard, with Ambrose and Griffo pushing the pace. I think we went through the first mile in around 5:10. The next couple of miles, Leon and I kept pushing the pace. Everyone dropped off, apart from Jesse. I knew it was going to be one of the toughest runs of my life with these two quality runners still hanging in. The first 4-5 miles, I really had trouble with my feet still so cold. We managed to pull back about a minute on Andy in the first couple of miles, but he held the time gap around 1:15 for the rest of the race. Around 6 miles, just as I was starting to hurt, Jesse put the hammer down and opened up a large gap on us. Around this point, I was really regretting leaving my nutrition behind. At 7 miles, I managed to grab a PowerBar gel and some Coke at an aid station. I yo-yo'ed off the back of Griffo for another mile. Half way through the 7th mile, I got a little bit angry and decided to pull my head out of my ass and go after Jesse. The next few miles, I realized that I didn't feel any worse, so I kept trying to lift the pace. At the turnaround, I managed to close a lot of distance between me and Jesse. Still feeling good, I really worked hard on the small hills to catch him. Just before mile 12 I managed to close up to Jesse. In the back of my mind, I was trying to figure out how to beat him as I knew he was an outstanding runner in college. I love sprint finishes. They have always been one of the best parts of the race for me, so I was looking forward to the battle to the finish line. I decide
d to go straight past Jesse and just run my own pace. Over the next mile, I slowly kept picking it up. It seemed to work as Jesse faded with a couple hundred meters to go and I was able to hold him off for 2nd.Congrats to Jesse for putting in a good race. He worked hard on the bike, which I think took a bit out of him on the run. Also congrats to Andy. Leading from start to finish is always impressive. I'm really excited to have such a great finish. I've been training really hard this winter, especially on the run and I'm happy to see that it's starting to pay off. Thanks to my sponsors: Rev3, Recovery Pump, Kestrel, TYR, PowerBar, RudyProject, Pearl iZumi and Shimano for their support.
There's a cool video recap of this race on YouTube. You can check it out here:
Nice race Richie! Think I'm going to have to get Di2 on my new bike. Kill it the rest of the year!
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