 It's Tuesday morning, three days following the South Downsway 100, and it turned out to be not a South Downsway 100 for me, but a South Downsway 76.6. I DNF'd my first proper running DNF. I did DNF in the Bastion full triathlon last year, which I was pretty gutted about, but it was technical issues, and I'm not a very experienced triathlete, and I wasn't absolutely devastated. It was a learning experience, and I drew from it, and I'll go on and do a full triathlon, I'm sure, one day. But I can do running. I'm not bad at running. I'm not the fastest in the world. I'm not going to win many races, but I should be able to run 100 miles, shouldn't I? Honestly, I absolutely fell apart at... Well, I started falling apart at 30 miles. I started having stomach problems. I was getting cramp in my left leg, and I had a little niggle in my knee that I haven't really mentioned to anyone other than my wife. I've had it for about three weeks or so following transvolcania, and that was hurting a little bit. It was warm. I wouldn't say it was overly hot. I did it last year, and it was hotter, I think, so I can't really blame the heat. I was drinking Red Bull as kind of my fast glucose energy, and I've had that before, and done all right with it. I don't drink it all the time. I don't drink it for the entire 100 miles. I probably drink it for the first half, and then don't have very much or any after that. But I think that was possibly the main issue with my stomach, because I was sick at around about 60 something miles, and it was mostly Red Bull that came up. The cramp issue, I often get cramp in my left leg, and I tend to deal with it. It's not that big of an issue a lot of the time, but of course, when it's combined with stomach issues and a knee problem and a head that isn't quite there, it becomes more of a problem. Anyway, I got to Saddlescombe Farm at 66.6 miles, and I just did not want to continue. I just couldn't drag myself out of that pit. Any of you that know about endurance running and have done long-distance races, there is a point, isn't there, where you are in a dark hole, a dark place, and you cannot get out of it. And that's where I was, and it's pretty much the lowest I think I've ever been in a race. And I said to Richard, just go. I can't deal with this. I'm going to have to stop. However, once he'd gone, I kind of relaxed a bit, and I just settled down. I sat down. I was not thinking about time and having to get up and go. I was just thinking about recovering my composure, which over the next 15, 20 minutes I did, and various people who I can't thank enough gave me lots of words of encouragement and a few forceful words, especially the volunteer staff who, under no circumstances, were going to allow me to quit at Saddlescombe Farm. Thank you, you lot. I did eventually get up, and I did climb my way out of that pit. And this is possibly the most frustrating thing really, because from 66 miles onwards, I was going to finish that race. I was fine. My stomach was okay. My leg was okay. My knee was just a dull ache, but it was all right. I was going to finish, and I started running. And perhaps the downhill section to House Dean Farm at 76 miles, 10 miles later, I ran a bit too hard. And then there was a little uphill through some woods, and I felt this sharp pain in my knee, and I knew something had happened. I literally couldn't walk hardly. I had to lock my leg straight and kind of hobble down to the to the aid station at House Dean Farm. Now, if I'd sat for half an hour, an hour even maybe, and just massaged my leg and taken some time to kind of recover a bit, part of me wonders whether I could have hobbled the last, you know, 24 miles home and got in under the 30 hour cutoff. But another part of me knows that there's no way I could have climbed those four hills. Coming out of House Dean Farm, there's a big hill. Coming out of Southeast, there's a huge steep hill. Coming out of Alfreston, there's a massive hill. And coming out of Jevington, there's a massive hill. All four of those last aid stations, there are big hills to climb. And it was that it was the hills that was that were killing my knee. So I really don't think I could have done it, and I would have risked damaging my knee further. So I called it a day and I got on the minibus and I went to meet my wife at Southeast. And we followed Richard to the end and Richard did fantastically well 21 hours, 25 minutes. And that's that's the story really. That's the the story of my South Dansway 100 2017. We'll be back again, maybe not next year, we'll probably volunteer next year and I'll run the South Dansway 100 in 2018. Lots and lots of other races between now and then. And looking back, to be honest, part of the problem with South Dansway 100 this year was that I was not ready for it. I have been doing a lot of races, you know me guys, I do, I do so many races during the year. It's difficult to, to kind of focus on just one. And really if I, if I had won this year, it was transvolcania. That was my kind of focus race, certainly for this first half of the year. And so South Dansway 100 was not an A race by any stretch of the imagination. So it was probably a foolish mistake to try and race it quite hard, which is what we were doing. I was, I would like to have got under 21 hours for that race. But my body was too tired. So along with stomach issues, cramp issues, knee issues, and a general fatigue from running so many races in the first half of the year, I think it's possibly no surprise that something had to give at some point. But there we are. I just thought I'd give you an update following my, my video with my race equipment. Take care guys and I'll see you again soon. Bye.