I am on the arduous journey to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics as a GB beach volleyball player.

I woke up a few days ago to my boyfriend Skyping me from England saying I won the award for "Most Inspirational Women's Beach Volleyball Player 2010.

"What?" was the first question I asked.

The second was "Why me?"

I was half asleep still so I checked the FIVB world tour website with news of this year's awards. It was true. I won the award, with Lucy Boulton, my partner, as runner-up.

At first, we could hardly believe it. But it was there on the screen. I suppose we're unique in that we're always smiling no matter how tough a time we're having and we always make an effort to be friends with other athletes.

I have been on this journey for four years now with Lucy, just missing the Beijing qualification in 2008. This time, as London is hosting the Games, one British team will automatically qualify and an opportunity for another one to qualify on merit. But there are three British women's pairs currently competing on the world tour. The situation is tense and competitive but we still believe we have a good shot.

Luckily, we've gained good finishes in the last two events of the season which will help us get a better draw for next year. I'm sitting here in my temporary home in Brisbane reflecting on the last two events in Sanya, China and Phuket, Thailand.

We've been to Sanya three times now and we honestly never look forward to it. It's a place where hardly anyone speaks English and the food is definitely far from the norm.

Last year Lucy and I competed in a Chinese "Fear Factor" eating competition that the American players put on. I lost in a chicken feet tie breaker against a Belgium player in the final and Lucy lost her dinner on a hog's tongue midway through the competition!

Sanya is nicknamed the Hawaii of Asia and you can see that it has palm trees, big resorts, a hot climate and beaches, but it's a completely different culture. Knowing this, we came prepared with healthy foods and supplements to maintain our energy and hydration levels.

We also brought our strength and conditioning coach, Kate Eddy, to ensure our warm-ups, recovery, fitness and nutrition were adequate and our coach Morph Bowes to do everything else including game plans, training sessions and video analysis.

Lucy and I had been training in the hot conditions of Brisbane to acclimatise and get used to the time zone (China is only two hours different from Australia) for the previous three weeks. We were ready and we got a solid finish of 17th place. But the real achievement came the following week in Thailand.

Lucy and I love Phuket. It's one of the best stops on the tour because of its beach resort atmosphere, amazing food, friendly people and cheap massages.

Kate wasn't too happy about us getting swung around and manipulated by a tiny Thai woman so we stuck with the standard western oil massage to keep us relaxed. And relaxed we were, until Lucy started feeling sick after we qualified.


She toughed it out, didn't complain, slept in her own room and woke up the next morning feeling better but worn down and low on sleep. She played great and, if anything, it was me who was letting us down against the Brazilians in the first round of the main draw.

The heat in Thailand is very humid and it really limits your oxygen intake after long rallies. We had quite a few of those against the French team in the qualifier and the two Thai teams in the main draw. The Thai teams just don't quit and what's more frustrating is that they don't even look like they're tired!

Although some might say we had a good draw, we still had to fight to get our best ever finish of 13th. We also had a close set against the Brazilian sisters who ended up finishing third and we ended the tournament losing to the Italians who came second.

So to celebrate the end of the season and our best finish, we all headed to Patong for a night out with some of the Germans and Americans. We're on a very strict diet normally with no alcohol, but Kate gave us the night off and she and Morph joined in the party.

The coaches also gave us a couple days off from training so we avoided the sun like the plague (always getting too much sun as a beach volleyball player) and did a little shopping, watched a few tournament games, and ate some yummy food.

Last year, I did an Island trip, elephant trek, monkey zoo, snorkelling and jungle tour with my boyfriend. This time, we only had two days off before we flew back to Brisbane for a five week block of off-season training with the other GB team of Mullin-Dampney.

People always ask us : "How is it to always train with the team you're in direct competition with for the host country spot?"

Well, the actual goal is to qualify both teams, so we're all just looking to improve as players and work ourselves up the rankings. We don't often compete against each other in tournaments either and we all get along really well.

Our head coach, Matt Grinlaubs, has put us in apartments where I share with Shauna Mullin and Lucy shares with Zara Dampney. It's been working out really well and we're all getting along great but it hasn't always been like that.

The year before last, there was some animosity between the two pairings because we are all such competitive people. Things got heated in training a few times and carried on off-court

Many conversations later, we all understand our competitive natures without taking things personally and feel reassured that we all want the same thing...to win!

Denise Johns is a GB beach volleyball star who was recently voted the Most Inspirational Women's Player 2010

British Volleyball is represented by davidwelchmanagement.com