The chance of a lifetime

Oh my, I don't know where to start - well I do but this is quite surreal and my head is in a bit of a funny place right now but here goes:

A month or so ago I saw an ad on the right hand side of my Facebook feed for a competition to become a member of the Berghaus trail team.  Crucially this was open to runners of all abilities and would give four non-elite runners access to the kind of kit, training and advice that is usually only available to the top athletes.  For those that are selected the following year offers a number of perks:

• £1000 worth of Berghaus kit
• Nutritional products from TORQ Fitness
• A three day training and preparation trip running in the Alps around the UTMB course (weather dependent) around Chamonix from 1st to 3rd July 2014
• Appearances in features in Trail Running Magazine
• Support and advice throughout the season 

There was a bit of form filling to do including a personal statement about who I am and what my running goals and experience are and that was it, done.  Now, to be honest I enter quite a few competitions as you never know eh? But really, I didn't expect anything to come of it.

Until today. I got an email at 5:30 pm to say I had been short listed! There are one hundred of us and we are required to attend a training day either in the Lakes or London (no contest, Lakes every time) and following that the list will be whittled down to four.  We all get an amazing opportunity to run in the Lakes with the Berghaus crew, including Steve Birkinshaw - a top trail runner with a string of major achievements under his belt (he's previously won the Lakeland 100 and OMM, among others). So, even if I don't end up as one of the lucky four I still think this will be the chance of the lifetime, I can't wait!