All over

Home!

It’s been a few days now since I arrived home. Unfortunately real life takes over and similar to last year I had to go straight into our Q3 reviews which meant other priorities to finishing this story, anyway………….

Everyone arrived home safe. Again compared to last year the journey was quite short and pleasant. We left the hotel at 13:30 local time and I was home by 21:30 that night. Probably the longest and most disappointing time wait is at LHR collecting the dogs. Now I have travelled quite a lot with the dogs including ferry, tunnel, hovercraft and flying into Brussels. These are relatively straight forward and simple, but getting the clearance from LHR is another story. In true British style this is a monopoly and a scam. It is like Britain circa 1978, when state control meant poor service, high prices and men sucking back through teeth telling you ‘its going to cost’. A little bird tells me that the Pets passport scheme will be brought into line with the rest of EU in the next few years. Perhaps an end to this monopoly and money making scam?

So, I have completed two tours of duty on team GB. How did the experiences compare?

Well, the primary thing is the difference in travel and hotels. Last year I felt as though I needed to force being awake through tiredness. The long journey, long days and hour long trip to and from hotel were not conducive to being fresh. This year the journey was quite short, the hotel ‘next door’ and the competition days shorter. However, 2007 was a better year for results. That blows a cause and effect argument wide open for freshness = better performances. In reality agility is not about simple equations, there are too many variables. What I do know is that I run better when I am fresh and awake. Let’s hope the organisers agree in the coming years. Hotel by the venue = Nice.

From my perspective, I thought both sets of team mates were great. I think only 4 of us made both 2007 / 2008 trips. I cannot say one year was better than the other. I enjoyed both in the same way, including the camaraderie. So, to all team mates, I’d like to say thanks.

This actually raises one interesting point. This year we were only one of a few teams to have changing rooms. Looking back, one of the highlights of the trips is the dressing room banter. Think about it. You travel a silly amount of KM’s for a maximum of 60 – 70 seconds in the ring per day (if doing 2 runs) and 8 minutes to walk the course. Considering one is there from 08:00 to 18:00 what happens the other 9 ½ hours? Well most of it is spent laying on a hockey players changing bench talking about agility and life. You get to know people so much better. I love that experience! If like most of the other teams we only had a taped area in the walkways, I am pretty sure that the experience would not have been as good.

Finishing an event like this is always difficult (theoretically it is known as group adjournment). You look forward to it for so long, live together, share similar experiences, laugh together (and sometimes cry together) and before you know it your packing to come home. There is a hole in the place where expectation lay only a few days before.

Personally I am already plotting Austria 2009. Might be a little premature and arrogant to expect to be ‘on the team’, but it is my goal. Without doubt I have learnt 2 things from this trip, 1st is about revisiting some agility training, the 2nd is that events happen and it is important to seize the opportunity. Nicola said to me during WC practice in 2007 ‘no regrets’ (meaning don’t come away thinking what you should have done), at this stage I don’t have any.