When a prize works out perfectly!

A few weeks ago, Polartec ran a competiton on their Facebook page. There was a quiz with several questions to answer,  and the first prize was a weekend in Chamonix to see the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc, a gruelling race run over the August bank holiday weekend, where thousands of runners run over a 166km course of mountain trails, with just 46 hours in which to complete the race. There were also 500 runners up prizes of sweatshirts.

When I looked at the page a few days after the competition closed, I saw lots of "Thank you for my sweatshirt" messages and felt a little disappointed, so imagine my surprise when a couple of days later I got an email to say I had won first prize!

The prize included flights to Geneva, transfers to Chamonix, a stay in a hotel and visits to several of the stopping points along the race as well as a cocktail party, meals and lots of extras.

Now. much as I love attending prize events, as  many of you know my daughter  Fiona is a very keen runner - she ran the Paris marathon this year. Here is a photo of her in a night race earlier this week (she is the one in green...... she is always  the one in green)

And Fiona and her husband live in a village called Ferney Voltaire, just outside Geneva. I knew that she would  get far more out of watching the race than I would, and also felt that she needed a treat - due to a dose of pneumonia, she'd not been able to run for several weeks. An event like this would help to get her back into the mood - and the mountain air would be good for her lungs too.

So I asked the promoter if it would  be at all possible for me and my husband to take the flights to Geneva, then stay in Fiona's flat andcat-sit while she and her husband had the remainder of the prize. They couldn't have been more helpful or obliging and we were soon heading off to Geneva.

Fiona and Juan had a wonderful time in Chamonix and Fiona's enthusiasm was really fired by the race - she's even talking about doing it herself one day. It was made extra interesting for her by the fact that one of  her old school friends was taking part in the race, and she met representatives from some of her favourite brands of running gear. They were extremely well looked after, stayed in a beautiful hotel, were plied with food and drink all weekend, given geneerous goody bags and were even given spending money, although as  everything was provided they treated themselves to some new trail shoes with it.

Meanwhile Mark and I relaxed in Ferney, shopped on the local market and made sure there was a huge meal ready for them when they got home, starving from all that mountain  air.