Sally Musgrove and her husband David lead an active and athletic lifestyle. However, competition was instinctively driven as the early days of triathlon were edgier but with little room for monetary gain.
Sally’s triathlon ambitions were cultivated when she trained with the Tamarama Tri Group. The group of athletes organised their own training regimes and were the first triathlon training group in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. One member would run the swimming group and another would train the bicycle component and the running leg.
Sally raced her way up and down the East Coast of Australia at events like the Nepean Tri, Taree and Woy Woy Tris and the Nutrimetrics Triathlon on the Gold Coast. David and Sally even held their own Aquathon competition every second Tuesday night at Clovelly Beach – It was a tough 5km run to Coogee and around the coast then an 800m swim in Clovelly Bay.
The Musgrove family traded in their city lifestyle and moved in 1989 from Clovelly, Sydney to the serene Southern Highlands. Sally said the relocation was for the benefit of the children, with 160 acres of rolling terrain for the kids to run wild on at their new residence beside Tudor House in Moss Vale.
David was the Boarding House Master and a teacher at the preparatory boy’s school when they moved. Sally assisted him in the boarding house and taught casually in the area until her youngest daughter Grace went to school. She then taught full-time at St. Thomas Aquinas Bowral for 10 years and then at Gib Gate for five before teaching at Tudor House, where David is now the Headmaster.
Sally is a firm believer in living a healthy and active lifestyle and wanted to bring her children up with the same values. Thomas, Andrew and Grace were introduced to sports and physical activity from a young age, all taking part in swimming lessons and team sports as soon as they could – while taking advantage of all the sporting equipment the school had to offer.
Sally on the bike leg of the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Championships in Chicago where she received a silver medal.
Most of Sally’s training was done while her kids were doing theirs. She even recalls looking after the children while on the indoor bike trainer – she could not afford to get hurt while the kids were young.
Soon Sally found herself acting as Mum’s taxi service, delivering the kids to swim squad in Picton where she would also train herself in the pool while her family was preoccupied. Maybe the commitment to her own personal fitness planted the seed for her children’s motivation to achieve their sporting goals down the line.
Discipline and organisation were the key words in the Musgrove children’s upbringing. Being at the pools by 5:30am was a test for everyone but the family showed grit and resilience which has begun to bear fruit now that everyone is a little older.
Last year Sally placed second overall in the 50-54 years women’s sprint race at the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Championship in Chicago, US.
Sally has also had an advantageous year this year after she won the Aquathon National Championships in February and has qualified for the ITU World Triathlon Age Group Championships in Cozumel, Mexico. She will jetset to South America in September before returning home to focus on her training for the Bowral Classic.
We will be featuring the Musgrove family over the coming weeks for the ‘In Focus’ Series. Grace Musgrove is currently in Europe training and competing in the Summer circuit at an elite level. We will catch up with her next week.
