My Other Family...

I have a great family. My parents have been married for over 35 years and I also have two younger brothers who are smart, athletic, creative and handsome. My family are close and we have never had a feud that has ever torn one of us apart from the other.

My other family is my Tri Alliance family whom I am in contact with every single day. During the training sessions, I get to catch up and train with an awesome bunch of people who have similiar interests and goals as me. During the non-training hours, I keep in contact with them through phone calls, facebook, coffee catch ups, having meals and twitter.

Words cannot express how much I love both my families but this entry is dedicated to my triathlon family (obviously, as this is my triathlon blog).

On Saturday 12th May 2012, Tri Alliance held their annual End of Season Presentation Night (EoSPN) at Ormond Hall in St Kilda. This is the 2nd presentation night I have attended, I missed out on the 2010 one as I was in Perth watching Hawthorn (lose to) the Eagles at Subiaco.

As part of this evening, we had some speeches from the coaches, annoucements, awards then the party.

Awards were split into three main categories - the serious ones:

• Best Short Course Female - Lisa Dominguez who podiumed (or top 5) for every single one of her races.
• Best Short Course Male - Brad Campbell who podiumed (or top 5) for every single one of his races for Clydesdale.
• Best Long Course Athlete - Marina Jurjevic who won her first ironman IMWA, came top 10 for IMMelb and is off to Kona in 2012.
• Best Newcomer - Shane Buntman for his dedication and enthuasm (he is also my oesteo).
• Team Player - Sarah Lausberg - all round supportive person
• Coaches Award - Dan Brueckner - all round nice guy

Oesteo Shane, Drunk Dave and I

The more social awards were:

• Cab Charge - the athlete who has required the most lifts home from a bike ride due to bike malfunctions - Jay Mueller.
• Bribery and corruption - Nola MacGregor for her baking and generosity
• Facebook addict - Dave Nealon for Sober Dave, Drunk Dave, Hungover Dave and facebook accounts for this dogs - Bronte and Sandy
• Zoolander Award - Brinn Tavener for a memorable photo finish.

The last award was the JC Memorial Scholarship. The description of this award is taken straight from the Tri Alliance Wrap Up Page: "The formal part of the evening finished with the most prestigious award of the night – the John Cornish (JC) Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was formed by JC last year, originally named the Tri Alliance Scholarship award. However after the passing of Coach JC on 22 July 2011 in a tragic bike accident, it was only fitting that with JC’s family’s blessing, we renamed the award and dedicated it to JC in his memory. The recipient of this award receives full support from Tri Alliance including coaching, consultations, training camps plus more. To receive this award is a huge honour amongst Tri Alliance athletes"

The trophy (the big one) was carved by JC's dad out of Tasmanian Oak (where JC came from) and has 20 plaques on the wheels, which will have the name of each of the recipients on it. Each recipient will also receive a pewter award too for them to keep. Last year, the award went to Dan Weekes who represented Aus at the ITU World Champs in China where he decicated his race to JC. This year, the award went to Marina.

Marina (winner for 2012), JC's sister, dad and mum, Dan

The picture above signifies everything I love about triathlon and Tri Alliance - FAMILY AND THE LOVE FOR A (SOMETIMES CRAZY) SPORT.

The JC Memorial award demonstrates how much we love what we do and make us grateful of the people we take this journey with.