Forget the increase in prize money that has lured an Olympian and the reigning World Junior champion to tomorrow's Country Energy Dubbo Triathlon, there is something more important at stake for some competitors.
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Family pride is on the line for the Kauters with four combinations entered in tomorrow's event, family members coming from Sydney to compete.
Father and daughter, John and Emma Kauter live in Dubbo but will line up in separate teams tomorrow. John said it was a novel way to get the family together.
"We had the family up for a get together last year but we needed another excuse to bring them up again," he said.
"This seemed like as good a reason as any so we'll take part, have a party afterwards and then have a recovery party on the Sunday.
"We're just doing it to participate, we don't expect to run places or anything like that.
"It started off with just me and my two brothers, Phillip and Peter, and just kind of went from there.
"Every time someone else wanted to go in it we had to find two more people to form a team.
"We still one need one more bike rider for our fourth team, so if there's anyone who can ride a bike who fancies a go we'd love to hear from them."
John (swim), Phil (bike) and Peter Kauter (run) make up one team while John's nephews and niece, Brenden (swim), Clair (bike) and Kristian Kauter (run), make up another.
Emma Kauter and her aunty Colleen are in the third team along with Rebecca Hagen while family friends Stuart Small and Robert Flakelar are the ones looking for a bike rider.
But it doesn't stop there.
"My wife Bev is the chief pom pom girl and my mother Monica is also coming up from Sydney to support us," John said.
"Phil's wife Kerry and Peter's wife Ros will also be here and Robert will have his wife and three kids cheering him on."
John has been a member of the Dubbo Triathlon Club for five years and said involvement in the sport came about through a general fitness campaign.
"When I first joined up with the triathlon club all these guys had six-pack stomachs but mine was the wine cooler stomach," he said.
"Robert works with me and we're away with work more than 200 days a year and when you're away that long you can get into some bad habits.
"So we were getting a bit slack but then decided one day we'd try to maintain a bit of fitness."
