Well, here we are, the last diary entry of the 2008/2009 season. It’s been an amazing journey with so many ups and downs but we are finally at the end of the season and what a way to finish - World Champions 2009!

The week started in true Team Minichiello fashion with some chaos. A delay to our flight out of Salt Lake City meant we missed our connecting flight in Chicago. It wasn’t much of an issue, we just transferred to the later flight. Gill, Jackie and Kat had an added bonus with a move to first class as the flight was so full there was no room for them anywhere else, what a shame! Unfortunately with the last minute change to another flight, not one of our bags arrived in Montreal. We were assured that they would be on the next flight which landed in only two hours so we decided to wait for them.

Jackie and Pete stayed in baggage reclaim to pick up the bags while the rest of us went to get the hire cars. Here we met another problem, because we were late in, the hire company had given our car to someone else due to a shortage of vehicles and they had none left. Jo showed remarkable restraint as she remained calm throughout the next hour and forty minutes, arguing with the very unhelpful employee behind the desk. However she emerged out the other side victorious with a car from another hire company paid for by the original company.

Getting the cars had taken so long that the bags were almost in on the next flight so we all went back into the airport to wait. It was 1am and everyone was getting tired and irritable but a quick trip to the coffee shop for hot drinks and doughnuts restored everybody’s spirits. Athletes are easy pleased – just feed them! As we were licking the last crumbs from our fingers Jackie and Pete appeared through the door with our bags. Almost all of them had made it, with only Kat, Jo and Gomer having one bag each missing. We set off for the hotel, eventually arriving at 5am. Thankfully we didn’t have to get up for training in the morning!

After a long lie the next day we grabbed some lunch and Pete, Jackie and Gill hit the shops on Main Street, Lake Placid. The purchase of most note was a book titled ‘Origami for Beginners’ which certainly kept Jackie amused for much of the following week While her first efforts were unfairly scorned by the men’s team for being a piece of paper with two folds in it and eyes drawn on (it was meant to be a dog) she rapidly honed her skills and moved onto more complex masterpieces. Her tulip won critical acclaim (from us anyway – and we are very critical!) however the less said about the ‘hummingbird’ and the ‘squirrel’ the better!

We settled into a routine of eating, sleeping and training, interspersed with trips to the pool and jacuzzi. Training this week was Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday with the race on Friday and Saturday followed by the team race on Sunday so we knew that fitting in time to recover was paramount. Recovery was especially important for Nic as she would be training and racing on every single one of those days while Gill and Jackie, sharing the workload, would have a day off sliding occasionally – the trials of being a driver! Unfortunately for Nic this meant that after sliding she was straight into an ice bath, not the most pleasant experience, and she was not best pleased when Jo got distracted while timing her and she stayed in a whole minute too long!
   
On the eating front we found ourselves quite often at a Japanese/Chinese restaurant as it was the only place to provide actual vegetables! One night, as we were waiting to be shown to our table, Gill was surprised to look down and discover a small girl clinging to her leg. She was obviously in some distress but unfortunately the only words we could understand were “Please…help me..” Giving up on Gill as she wasn’t coming to the rescue fast enough she moved onto Jackie who finally deciphered that she desperately needed the toilet but couldn’t go herself. After a frantic search for the owner of the child, which proved fruitless, Jackie had to act. Making Kat come with them to protect against any possible lawsuits or accusations of wrongdoing they made it to the bathroom just in time. One good deed for the day and the meal was good too!
   
A few nights later we went back and this time tried Teppenyaki –rice, meat and vegetables cooked on a hotplate right in front of you. The chef put on quite a show; juggling knives, setting things alight and generally giving everyone an entertaining evening. Nice as all this was, we just wanted to eat and it’s never a good idea to keep an athlete from their food – Gill was on the verge of just stealing food off the hotplate!

Back at training Jo was on stunt video duty again, being sent to the most difficult to reach places to get the best shots possible for Nic. Topping all her season’s previous antics she spent one day dangling precariously from a wire between corners one and two with only a 3 inch plank of wood for her feet while sleds rushed past just inches away. She couldn’t climb down between runs and so had to drop the camera down to Nic standing ten feet below. Nic would watch the video and then throw the camera back up for Jo to catch. Then the next day she found herself climbing to the top of the TV camera platform in the near the bottom of the track to get a shot of the whole lower section as Nic was losing time there but didn’t know why. Having scaled the scaffolding she then had to use her powers of persuasion to convince the camera crew to let her stay as they insisted it was too dangerous. She was adamant and managed to get her shot, which proved extremely useful. Contrary to popular belief Nic insists she doesn’t spend time searching for obscure places to put Jo to film, it just happens that way!
   
Kat wins the prize for best observational skills of the season. After only three months with the team she has made a startling discovery – Gill and Jackie don’t have a visor on their helmets. Not something you would necessarily notice in passing but after three months….?
   
As there are four runners and only three of us to polish them, someone always has to do two. As Nic and Gill were racing on Friday and Saturday Jackie became the ‘runner slave’ and polished two runners on both Thursday and Friday nights before the race. Poor Jackie locked away in a bare room for hours with nothing but the sound of sandpaper on steel for company! We would feel sorry for her but she did volunteer and Gill did take her turn on Saturday night before the team race. Nic was delighted to be let off so lightly, we look after our driver well!
   
As race day approached it was time for what Jackie concisely terms ‘Nic and Gill’s freaky talks with the bob’ to begin. Jackie calls it freaky, we call it race preparation! It’s just a final check that all is well with the sled the night before a race – everything is polished, stickers are on and the sled is nice and warm under its blankets. If we happen to spend a bit of time giving the sled a pep talk while we’re there, well that’s completely normal isn’t it?
Race………………