In the final days of the contest, more and more videos started appearing as the deadline got closer. Then came the day Alton were to announce the winners... I refreshed my emails every 10 minutes all day, until late afternoon when it seemed I hadn't been selected, then it appeared - an invitation from Alton Towers, to attend their Boot Camp.

THE RUN - UP 

The date was set, 27 finalists set up a group on Facebook, all anticipating the day of Bootcamp, just over a week away. In the last few days, disaster struck! - there was a problem with the new ride, bootcamp was postponed and we were 'to be notified' when Alton could reschedule, which they couldn't do until the problem was solved and they didn't know how long that would be! So the anticipation was prolonged... things started getting tense as the days went by with no news as to how the repairs were going. Alton were forced to cancel a preview weekend planned for the ride. It looked as though bootcamp might not happen at all... with just a few days to go before the ride's scheduled opening date, Alton gave word, and bootcamp was re-organised.

Alton generously offered to accommodate us in one of their hotels the night beforehand, I checked in and was greeted by some of Alton's representatives. Then I made my way down to the bar where I met up with the other campers. The excitement and anticipation ensured that the group had plenty to talk about, I spoke with Alton's PR guys who were also in the bar who said "it was like watching a re-union". The whole group instantly bonded as close friends, and throughout the next couple of days I witnessed no bad vibes from anyone, toward anyone else, even when some of the tasks were designed with great potential for argument! Nobody stopped up too late as we were aware we had a full day of strenuous activities ahead, but I was so excited I could hardly sleep anyway! 

BOOT CAMP 

After breakfast, bootcamp got under way with a warm welcome from Morwenna Angove. She's the lady often associated with Alton's sillier publicity stunts - which, work wonders in terms of Alton's 'talkability'... Its the kind of role requiring shrewd and clever thinking, while sometimes risking your credibility! Much respect, and it was an absolute pleasure to meet her.

We knew Alton planned to do psychometric testing on us, but only a few people knew what that meant! It transpired to be a group activity, looking into ourselves, discovering traits about our own personalities. It came as no surprise the group largely consisted of thrill seekers! Our next activity was borrowed from the 'corporate training course' mentality of getting people to think outside the box. Both fairly tame things for thrill seekers to be doing, but which enabled the group to work together, and strengthen the bonds forming. Lunch was then served in the Secret Garden restaurant.

Just after lunch... came our roller coaster endurance test! - An hour on Air, which surprisingly resulted in only one vomiter. Nicholas Merrick received a great cheer from fellow boot campers as he hurled his guts over the ride and a nearby wall, although I suspect this is probably what cost him his place on the winning ride. It was great for me to finally meet an online friend from 'rideas', Tim Gaylard who was working on the ride for us too. 

Following our ride, Alton marched us back to the hotel, where they explained our next challenges, which included some orienteering around the park, archery, and a mine sweep. Mine Sweep was a bit of an 'Its a Knockout' game, involving planks of wood, rope and water bombs, all were great fun!

After an evening meal back in the hotel, we spotted John Wardley in the bar, who was pleased to chat, pose with us for photos and sign Matt Aspinall's legendary 'Alton Towers Monopoly' game. I was thrilled to chat with him for five minutes, I asked him about his involvement with Barry Island and mentioned its recent demise, but we were quickly dragged away as we were about to be advised of our evening's activities. The first was another challenge using juggling balls, borrowed from the training course ice-breaker school of thought. Another involved tie-ing large knots in ropes, and a Japanese conundrum puzzle using large wooden jigsaw pieces. Then things started to get a bit scarier. We were lead blindfolded into the woods, our hands placed on guide strings tied around trees, and told to follow the path. Of course the terrain was tricky, and we were being followed, and having leaves and dirt thrown at us... Eventually told we could remove the blindfolds, we were then taken by bus over to the Dark Forest.

Split into teams (was my pleasure to work with John Burton) we were given our bags and sleeping mats and told to erect our tents, one person blindfolded, the other was three metres away calling instructions. John's done Duke of Edinburgh, and I used to sell tents so despite the handicap we did well. Once up, we were in for the night, with a puzzle to  take our minds away from the spooky location. Of course, it wasn't long before we heard grunting noises... the Wraiths were here. 

Then things got serious, boot campers were being dragged out of their tents by panic stricken ramblers or zombies covered in blood, who then ran off... The boot camp officials arrived and told us it was too dangerous to stay out, we were going to have to spend the rest of the night in the hotel! LOL

THE BIG DAY

The following day was an early start - yet I was so hyped up from the experience thus far, and the night in the Dark Forest I couldn't sleep again! After breakfast we performed another outdoor challenge involving blindfolds & ropes, before returning to the hotel to build our own roller coaster. By now we had all made really good friends of one another, & it amazed me the way 27 strangers could work in harmony to create a highly impressive marble roller coaster (reaching 7ft high) in under an hour! Lewis made an excellent project manager, we split into teams to build various sections of the bamboo, pipe & sticky tape ride, and were all very proud of 'Pipe Dream'! 

THE SELECTION

We all knew that not all of us were going to go through to the final ride. Judges & cameras had been following us throughout boot camp, they considered the video applications, the voting, and the interaction throughout boot camp. With everyone getting so passionately involved with boot camp, it must have been a real task to choose the winners. But it HAD to be done. Everyone was in the bar, with the judges in the next room. We were taken by groups of 4, to hear whether we were through, or whether we were going home. EVERYONE wanted to be the 1st to ride Th13teen, everyone at boot camp deserved to ride Th13teen, but only 20, could go on to ride.

I wasn't in the 1st group to meet the judges. The doors closed, there was silence, then we heard a cheer - they obviously had a 'yes'. The next group were lead through, we heard another cheer. I wasn't in the 3rd group, or the next, or the next. We heard more cheers, we heard faint applause when we guessed there'd been a 'no'. I was among the final group to be lead though... the anticipation at this point had been dragged out unbearably. So I was a tad emotional when it was a 'yes'!!!

However, while some of us had received the great news that we were the first people to ride on Th13teen, some of our (by now, close) friends had just received some VERY disappointing news. A bitter-sweet feeling, you have to contain your excitement when consoling several friends, now in tears. The 2 couples within the group were broken up, with 1 going through, the other not. Winners were to be bussed over to the ride immediately, so there was no time for goodbyes. Boot camp was over for some, for others it was about to become a dream come true. I guess Alton would call this 'The Emotional Roller Coaster'!

THE RIDE