Shoeless (Mikey), Shirtless (Champagne) and throw in a few
Tea Towels (Fats, Tom) welcome to the evening for the HuRTS Presentation 2015. We may have ‘Premiership’
like runners in the team but when it
comes to the Fashion stakes I fear some are languishing sadly in the ‘Conference’
league.
Caught up with Corky and Gleeso for a few quick ones at St
James before making our way over to what has become HuRTS Social Headquarters
at the Tilbury Hotel for the night ahead.
Rocks up and finds a good team out with many familiar faces,
The Chairman had been out early so I was keen to get the show under way before
he was to fall asleep. Tommy H does a
good job as M.C and once again his P.A Kellie did well and should take the credit in writing
his brief for the night.
First up was the Ultra Walkathon and NO surprises here as
Tucks has a stranglehold on this one , but with him in Wales Andy Heyden
stepped forward to collect the ‘Johnny Walker’ bottle.
Pete Walker normally walks away with the ‘Ken’ doll for the
Triathlon, but was upstaged this year when Crossy Lad was rewarded with a solid
year over the 3 disciplines.
The much improved Angus Boyd was next up and it was great to
see his rise over the past 12 months not just in his running but taking his
swim leg to a new level as well.
My reward for laying out a dozen cones each week at
Rushcutters gave me the honour to step forward to collect the ‘Sprit Award’
that was nice, although in truth it easily could have gone to any one of about
5 people in my eyes and Matt Keeley’ really should have got more kudos for his
work co-ordinating the 24 hour Out Run Cancer charity earlier in the year.
The one award that nobody wants was next, and this year we
had a loads of nominees as Kanser, Champagne, Charlie D and Fats all having
years that they would prefer to forget. BUT you won’t keep our Irish friend out
the headlines for too long and it was Enda Stankard who saluted the judges. It’s
been 18 months (Gold Coast 2014) since he’s put anything worthwhile on the
board and the HuRTS team did the right thing and made sure his name will sit
alongside Mikey and Champagne on the famous ‘Serg’ Trophy.
A NEW trophy was added to the list this year with the ‘I
Gave it Everything’ Award and this really started with Durante’s epic finish at
JP 6 years back, Sammy Agnew’s Robot Dance at the Gold Coast is also famously logged
and who could forget Enda’s epic fail at Lane Cove last November?
This year the 3 nominations were; Kanser, who in an attempt
to break 3 hours by a mere 20 odd seconds found himself in the medics tent for
about 3 hours post race in London.
Hamish thought he would crawl the final 50 metres of this year’s
City to Surf on all fours, But the
winner again was Enda Stankard for crashing his way through the barriers in the
same race down the home stretch that resulted in him being the first in the
Medical tent out of the 80’000 finishers.
The TWO big awards of the night were pretty straight forward
in the end with Erika winning the females for a second straight year thanks to
her Half and Marathon efforts,
In the Male division, good guy Michael (Hoey) Ho won the
POTY award for his stunning Gold Coast performance back in July, think he won
it pretty convincingly in the end – and the scary part is I think he’s only
going to get so much faster
** He may have won POTY but sadly he still only rates about 5th
in the blogging department J
Congratulations to all the winners,
After that I did a
small Swimming Award for the lunchtime crew and Angus took the ‘Golden Duck’
for his consistency over the 1k trials, Mr Liam won the ‘Suntan/Bench Award for
his efforts for standing as the pool every Friday for 45 minutes and it was NO surprise
when Coach Pete Walker took the top gong for POTY in the water.
So with all the formalities out of the way it was time to
mingle and talk TRASH with the guys, C.T was the first faller (no surprise with
that) but The Chairman despite a steady sway was still on his feet? Didn’t take
long to work out why .................Seems he was drinking the pub dry with
WATER, words stagger me.
Enda was talking more TRASH than ever, but I found someone
to have a decent conversation with in Mr Mullaney who sadly is leaving us at
the end of the year to join the ‘Meter Maids’ in the Gold Coast and will be a
big loss.
The annual late pilgrimage to Harry’s was complete but with
NO Stallion Durante in town and Birchy ‘ Going Early’ profits were down for
Harry although Mrs Kenny (Renee) wasn’t holding back in lashing into a pie or two.
The old stayers were still going strong and I was left to
get a taxi home with Gleeso and ‘King of the Tea Towel’ Fats and before I knew
it the 5 AM alarm was ringing in my ears as I staggered getting set for a 40
degree plus day.
A top night once again, and so great when the team comes
together to do what we do best ...... Socialise J
A few pics from the evening .
Crossy Lad collects 'Ken' for Triathlete of the Year
Tucks took out his Walkathon but Skippy Heyden collected the Johnny Walker.
More photos to come tomorrow from the rest of the evening
Cheers
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