Blogs

Tue, 27 Sep 2011

Ooooooooo LA LA LA LA

By Jodie Stimpson - Vision Fitness Ambassador

I arrived in L.A. on Tuesday at 9.20am, which was kind of strange because I left Yokohama at 3.20pm on the same day???? Time zones drive me crazy!!!!

The flight was ok, a 10 hour flight is a 10 hour flight, surprisingly, I watched a film, had some dinner and then tried to sleep for the rest of the flight. But anyone who has experienced a long flight knows that that is next to impossible to do this, unless you're in business class or something!!!!!! Which I'm not . . . yet anyway ;-)  I am however determined to get in there one day and not have to just walk past the exclusive curtain staring through at them thinking "ooo that looks soooooo comfortable", I'm collecting the air miles so don't worry people, another 300 flights or so and I should be nearly there . . . right????

This week has been brill, its been really relaxed and chilled, just ticking over in training and recovering from jet lag which has given me and Hollie Avil time to do a bit of touristy stuff which we don't usually get time to. Normally we arrive in these amazing countries and sit in our hotel room!!!!!

So me and Hollie went on a tour which took us to Hollywood and Beverley Hills!!!!!! Check us out!! And we also discovered The Olive Garden (one of the many nice places to eat out here).

Michelle and Stuart arrived on Friday and time seemed to fly by and before I knew it it was Sunday morning and the race was here!!! So, Sunday morning came and it was an early start. Up at 4am to have a coffee and a few powerbars before driving down to the race venue, setting up transition in the dark (bit like Barcelona), and just as the horn sounded the run from the beach to the sea began, and the sun started to appear. Bliss!!!!!

I was a bit slow running in, but got in fine and dolphined in for a while until we were clear of the waves, but my goggles were fogged up to the max and I couldn't see a thing so I had to depend on other swimmers to take me round the course, which is not a good thing and resulted in me going the wrong way, but it was ok in the end, and I didn't loose too much time coming into to T1. Out onto the bike just behind Hollie, Lisa and a few others but Lisa didn't feel like hanging around, and showed her power on the bike and in 1  2  3  she was gone, never to be seen again lol.

I was hanging in on the bike for the whole 40km, my legs were feeling like they were going to explode! I must have looked like a first timer, no time trial bike, no time trial helmet, oh dear, not the best look on a non drafting course!!!!! So coming into T2, I really did not know how I was going to be able to run but in and out safety in around 7th place, I bolted out of transition and just thought I'd go for it. I really wanted to test myself and push as hard as I could for the whole 10km, so that's what I did, and I am glad I did. I managed to catch up to Hollie and Annabel Luxford, and then found myself chasing Mary Beth Ellis who was in 3rd, I caught her just before the first lap which was 5km.

The run course was good with a bit of a hill, a small out and back, and then running down the steep hill x2. Before I knew it, I was running in 3rd and saw Sarah McLarty in front of me running in 2nd. I was pushing and pushing and heard Michelle shouting at me. I passed Sarah before we hit the hill and oh my God I was in 2nd, and this is where I stayed. I finished in 2nd place and was so chuffed, and to make things even better I had the fastest run split with a time of 34.56, I'm still smiling now, from ear to ear.

Well done to everyone who raced, LA is such a great event and BIG congrats to Team Dillon; Hollie Avil in 6th and Stuart Hayes in 4th. 
Now onto Dallas next weekend, I'm having a great time out here with the team and look forward to racing again on the weekend. I could get used to this USA living!

Jodie xxx

Photos thanks to finishline-Multisport.com

For more information about Jodie Stimpson - Great Britain Triathlete, visit www.jodiestimpson.co.uk.