You would be forgiven for thinking that all triathlon events attract the attention of Zeus or Jupiter (god of the sky, rain, lightning and thunder) and for hedging your bets that this last race would be held in arctic conditions.  Well done to those adventurous souls who thought they knew better and entered anyway - you were right!  You could not have wished for better racing conditions, than those that were dished out at Challenge Melbourne on Sunday.  Calm waters, no breeze, cloud cover then sunshine and plenty of boisterous cheers greeted all athletes that took on the course.  We had 24 individuals and 1 team competing in the half distance, 15 taking on the sprint course and twice as many supporters scattered all the way from St Kilda to Black Rock who showed their love for the yellow and blue!  Read our weekend highlights for all the results, but we had some stand out performances that simply must be mentioned: Archballs smashed the course and set a new PB of 4:19 in a 'unique' build, Georgie made a return to long course after 8 years and dominated the women's field finishing 1st in her AG by 13 mins, 3rd female AGer overall and a cracking time of 4:27,  Sergii thumped out a massive 27min PB to finish in 4:30, Bondy Sr finished his first half distance and on the 2nd step in his AG and Hannah completed just her 2nd ever triathlon (1st one was 2 weeks ago) and finished on the 3rd step in her AG!!!   Wowzers.  Such phenomenal results and it's a testament to all of our hard working athletes and coaches who work together, follow the plan and believe in one another to get to the goals set out.

Also in this edition, something tasty from Ambassador Steph, an overview of training sessions, camp details, but let's be honest, the main focus here is the End of Season PARTY!  If you haven't done so already, you must get your ticket ASAP, and we're also calling on all of you to cast your votes for the acclaimed awards. 

So, you know the drill; grab that coffee and read on!

One of the best things to do over winter is to get strong!  And one of the best ways to do it is with an intensive hit-out at one of our camps!  You get to surround yourself with like-minded people, live and train like a pro and forget about all the other worries of the world while you eat, sleep, train, repeat!  We've got 2 camps coming up - Lorne Camp on the Queen's Birthday long weekend and Thanyapura Thailand Camp at the end of July.  More information to come, but time to start thinking about how you'll make gains this winter and #GainTheEdge 

Hannah is new to Tri Alliance, but boy has she made an impact.  She joined our Try-the-Tri program to lead into Challenge Melbourne, having never done a triathlon before and earned herself a spot on the podium after just 6 weeks training with us.  It seems she has very much been bitten by the bug and we expect to see a lot more of this one around.  According to Hannah, "One day without training and I'm losing the plot and turning to bad poetry.  I need to get back on my bike ASAP".  Hope you enjoy Hannah's reflection of her triathlon journey.