Annual Awards Banquet and other goings on.

Many thanks to the 60 or so who braved the weather and made it to the Awards Banquet last Saturday.

Our guest speakers were Julie Rivard and Peter Giles; both former international paddlers and Olympians. In their post-paddling lives they still maintain close ties with Olympic sport; Peter was the assistant chef de mission for Team Canada at the Beijing Games and Julie was a Team Services Officer for Team Canada at the Games. In this role one of Julie's tasks was to "look after" the Canadian Triathlon team; everything from picking them up from the airport to doing their groceries. They gave a truly excellent talk and for many of us more used to hearing stories from the Olympic Triathlon from the point-of-view of the blue vests, it was wonderful to hear the stories from Team Canada's side as well. There is a possibility that following on from this talk there will be some great bling on offer to TNS members in the near future; stay tuned...

In addition to giving out age-group and overall classement awards, there were the usual assortment of other prizes. The TNS Community Award was given to Bridgetown RD Mike Parker, in recognition of his development of the Bridgetown race. The Crash Trophy was awarded to Matt Piggott for his astounding low-speed effort at the Coteau de Lac Continental Cup where at a 180 turnaround he managed to straddle the turnaround cone with his bike. Unfortunately Matt was at a swim-meet in Acadia and not able to collect his prize in person; a cone with which to practice his 180s and a handy top-tube guide to navigating the peloton in French; nous travaillons ensemble?, a gauche, a droite, allez allez nous jouons a l'accordeon and ce n'etait pas moi, c'etait mon frere.

The highlight for us was the first (and possibly last) award of the Tartan Tally/Cookie Counter. The competition was decided in favour of Ron McKilt, whose 41 events since Jan out competed the Cookie Monster's 22. The "prize" was a tickle-me Cookie Monster, adorned with a kilt of MacDougall tartan.

The absolute number of races did not tell the full story. Ron's racing odyssey over and through the Maritimes and North America took in some 1400 kms of racing, whilst Mark's similar journey was about 1000km. Given the number of events, the average distance travelled with a bib-number by Ron was a shade over 43 kms (a full marathon) whilst Mark's average distance was a shade over 53km (a decent-length Ultra). We couldn't let such a feat (feet?) go unrecognised, and so Mark was awarded a Cookie Monster woolly hat...

We know the original Cookie may get cold in the snow during one of Mark's epic cross-country marathons, not to mention being deficient in the whole (hole?) ear-warming category, so may this Cookie bring Cookie luck (and warm ears).

Thanks to all the sponsors for the banquet; Cyclesmith, A1, Avis, Two If By Sea, Helly Hansen and Maritime Campus, not to mention the Banook Canoe Club for putting us up (putting up with us). A huge tip pf th hat to Ed Sarah Wood, without whom the banquet could not have happened (nor would you have got your TNS car window sticker or TNS blinky red light)

It was not all not all fun and games last weekend, louging around the Banook Canoe Club with three helpings of lasagna and a beer or two warming your innards whilst getting the inside scoop on Simon Whitfield's Olympics. For some, it was business as usual;

Laura Keefe posted 10:16 at IM Florida, to place 2nd in her AG and qualified for Kona to boot. We're trying to think if she's ever placed lower this year than this in either the overall or AG classements this year at any race from Sprint Tris to Ironman via 70.3 and half-marathons. Stacey Jucket-Chestnutt ran a 3:11:07 at NYC, and Jason Murphy 3:55:02 in the same event. Closer to home, McKilt did the St Andrew's Half seemingly unaware he wasn't going to get another kilted Cookie Monster from TNS this side of next years banquet, but unable nevertheless to stop running!. Even closer than that, Gerrad Lewin and the TA took on Cyclesmith's Psychocross which took place, quite literally, in six inches of mud.

Coming up, more Psychocross as long as the municipality doesn't go all Ottawa on us! Speaking of YUL, ED Sarah Wood will be heading to Ottawa next week at Triathlon Canada's invite for the Sport Leaders conference whilst the Pres will be heading to Quebec City for the TriCan AGM in a couple of weeks. if you have any issues you want raised give us a shout.

Stay dry

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