As I sit here and begin typing I am still amazed at all that I have achieved in the past 12-18 months. To finish off that past 18 months, we had our End of Season Tri Club Awards presentation last night, and I was awarded the Coach’s Award for 2024. This came as a complete surprise!

It has certainly been a massive year for me from Kona in Hawaii for the Ironman in October, the New York Marathon 3 weeks later, to the Olympic distance Mooloolaba Tri in March, and then a half ironman 70.3 race in Port Macquarie. These have been my main events I have participated in over the year, along with achieving personal best times on all four distance events. There were a couple of other smaller events in between which were a duathlon in Toowoomba, the annual Mother’s Day classic fun run, and a sprint distance Tri at Raby Bay.

My next event is the City2Surf this Sunday in Sydney. This one has always been on my To Do List. Now that my girls are adults, and I am only working for myself, I can work completely remote anywhere I am. This means I can begin to tick off my Bucket list items. I have also created a fundraising page for this event to help raise funds for the AAAF, in a hope to repay the amazing work that the Australia Alopecia Areata Foundation does in creating awareness and helping people with this condition.

https://city2surf24.grassrootz.com/australia-alopecia-areata-foundation-inc/sally-mclellan?tab=donations

The year will be hard to match, but I did always say I wanted my 50th to be memorable and it certainly has been. Now that I have finally moved into my new downsized home, still living amongst boxes, Coach says no more excuses with training, and it is time to now get stuck back into it for my next few events. These are the Noosa Olympic distance in November, Hervey Bay 150 two weeks later, Mooloolaba Tri in March next year and then my next Ironman back in Port Macquarie again in May.

Thank you once again AAAF, for giving me the opportunity to keep training and participating in my sports, doing what I love, while continuing to create awareness for Alopecia. I hope I have succeeded in helping in positive ways.

***

Sally was a part of our sponsorship program – you can also participate! Go here to learn more https://aaaf.org.au/sponsorship-program