Blogs

Sun, 16 Oct 2011

Podium at Barcelona, now for a rest...

By Jodie Stimpson - Vision Fitness Ambassador

So, after Dallas I came home to train for 2 weeks before heading out for the last race of my 2011 season in Barcelona. I have done this race for the past 2 years and have been lucky enough to take home the gold. The race is not like any other race because we start at the same time as the men, and we get to race with the men for all three disciplines, so if I can swim, bike and run with the men then I am on for a good one.

Mum is joining me on this venture which is nice, a weekend away with Mum, but the down side for her is that for most my races she struggles to watch due to nerves. Mom will normally go on a walk somewhere, have a coffee in a cafe, walk around the expo, and then we struggle to find her when I've finished!! However, this weekend it's tough, and she'll have no choice to watch lol, never mind Mum.

So I flew with Mum on the Thursday and we got into Barcelona late on Thursday night, so by the time we got to the hotel it was ready for bed. We both woke up in the morning starving!!!!!! One thing I do love to do in Barcelona is go for a run in the morning just as the sun is rising, so me and Mum decided we could wait 30 minutes and go for a run before brekkie, and I'm so glad we did. The sunrise was stunning, just as I remembered it from last year. Bliss.

Race morning was an early start, up at 5.00am for a coffee and powerbar (it's all I can stomach at that time in a morning) and then down to the race start in the pitch black. I did a run warm up and went in for a swim but suddenly I had deja-vu, LA in 2009 I went in for a swim warm up and the waves were so big I couldn't get back out, and today was the same!!!

I was in for my warm up and the race organisers moved the swim start, which in one way was a relief, but on the other hand not so good, as it didn't give me time to claw back on Ainhoa Murua from Spain who had had a good start and was hanging on to the back of the men, and that start won her the race. I chased as hard as I could into T1 seeing her leaving as I was coming in, and I did catch some time back on the long run out but not enough, she was with the lead pack of men and I was then joined by Nicola Spirig on the bike. We chased hard, but it wasn't enough to bring back the main pack and we went into T2 with the leading pack having quite a big lead, but the race was not over.

I bolted out of T2 knowing that I was running well and pushed and pushed with Nicola never leaving my heels, I tried to drop her in the first 5km but then at 6km she came up onto my shoulder and pushed on, and I couldn't push any harder. I tried to hold on but the gap grew between us.
I finished just over a minute behind Nicola in 3rd with Ainhoa Murua running away with the win.

I would of liked to have finished on top of the podium today to make it 3 in a row but happy to finish my season with a podium, 3 Barcelona Triathlons, 3 podiums, but I'll be back next year to get my title back!

Now I'm on a break. No training and its family and friends time. So my "to do list" will now consist of the following:

1) No getting out of bed before 6am

2) No going to bed before 8pm

3) Maybe having a few cheeky treats including carrot cake :-)

I hope everyone has had as much fun as I have this year in triathlon and am looking forward to 2012.

Take care,
Jodie xxxx

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