Sorry to hear that bud. Just logged on to check the trackers, and saw your number.
You’ve just go let the disappointment settle a bit then reassess. Like you said, you’re been balancing on the brink of injury for pretty much all your races this year if memory serves me.
Well done for getting out there though. And think of the upside, now you’re not out there in this miserable rain! 
These things sound so tough, running on that sort of terrain through the night , in bad weather.
How far did you run in the end? I’m well impressed. Whether or not you finished, it’s still a spectacular thing to have done 
Wot go and ft said - spend the next 2 months getting it sorted before starting the gradual build to Thames Path. Getting the issues sorted should include some proper physio to address the issues
51.4km an 1300 mtrs
Sorry to hear that @FatPom - if they were easy they’d be called Ironman eh!
Just flicked through Strava and seen one of my old club mates won it. I believe he’s originally from the area
I’m sat in a mini bus with Lee, your bathroom guy 
My not bathroom guy! Fucker isn’t available until April!
Been following him. That’s proper rapid on that course. It’s brutal
Sorry it didn’t go as you’d hoped for. Recover properly, have a rest, do family stuff and start a slow build for next year
Which is interesting as JimG was too injured from riding his bike to ride half the time, presumably running suits him more!
I know Jim’s raced quite a bit in the area before. It’s always been over my head though.
There’s not much too him so probably quite suited to this stuff. He was annoyingly quick uphill on a bike too
You say that but he always seems to be dealing with some sort of niggle
Horrible cold reality of the morning after a DNF , man I hate that feeling. Confidence, ego, body all hurting 
On the plus side, nearly everyone at that race and crew knows GingerBongo, so I heard a lot of stories. 
Oh dear 
I feel your pain….
Next year will be our year mate 
Sorry to hear that @FatPom, you’ll bounce back!
My tale of woe:
The weather was truly awful, horizontal rain. We started at 8.30pm and it was weird starting at night but exciting. Navigation was a bit tricky and I stayed with one guy who was going at my slower pace. We were generally mid pack. I was eating and drinking well.
We reached the first checkpoint (Woolacoombe in 4.05), so we were nearly 90mins ahead of cut off. The wind was very cutting and the rain made your eyes go dizzy because the headtorch illuminated the droplets, it’s a weird effect.
After the checkpoint everything gets hard, an awful lot harder with very sheer cliff drop offs, big hills and narrow rocky paths. I was very glad to be with someone. About 10km after the checkpoint (so about 40km in) I started to feel some pain in my left hip. I’ve had this before and in my attempt at a 100 miler in June, this pain caused me a DNF, so I was wary to say the least!
We made a huge navigational error coming out of Lee that caused us to ascend for over 20mins and then we had to come down again, find the right hill and climb another 15, so that costs us and then 5km later we made a very similar mistake before Ilfracombe which caused us huge time chunks. By now my hip was on fire and my whole energy system had shut down. I’d never experienced anything like it and it was getting worse by the minute.
By this time, the race sweeper had caught us with one tail ender and the last lady in the 110 milers (she was walking but strong). So in 20kms, we’d gone from being 90mins ahead to being right up against cut off. Talk about a detonation!
We got to Ilfracombe but that was not a checkpoint, the next CP was a further 10km. i had no chance of making it, I could barely walk now and my feet felt like glass.
It was 5.20am, no taxis, no sign of life and I was worried. I saw a hotel that had lights on, and so me and the sweeper (Lee, not to be confused with previously mentioned village!) approached. The night manager took pity and let me sit in the nice warm lobby area, as the weather was still biblical. The sweeper went on and caught the others.
Of course all the taxi companies in town were shut, so I was stuck but I was safe and off my hip.
Later in the morning, the race org sent a mini bus to get me from the next CP, there was three other DNFs on there and then it took us to Minehead (where my car was) and we picked up another 2 DNFs on the way.
They were heading out again to pick up others. So it was not my day, two DNFs in one year is very hard to take. I have a 50 miler in Nov but I’m thinking of canning that until i can get to the bottom of this hip issue.
It was hard to navigate. There are no race signs, you follow the coast path signs but they are tricky because they’re wooden with an acorn carved in, not some great big reflective thing. I had the course on my phone and watch and so did my race mate but we still got lost. Sometimes the track is obvious and sometimes it’s a massive wide hill with multiple options.
Even the sweeper got lost just before we hit Ilfracombe and we all had to backtrack again for 10mins or so and he’s done the race about 3 times!
Ironically, my knee felt fine until i was actually driving home! 
So I only managed 51.4kms in 8.5hrs and 1300mtrs vert but I did get some good night experience.
Anyway, some of my Monday night running mates have given me the name and number of a really good running physio, so I’m calling him today to start the rehab. I’m really hoping my hip is not a laberal tear/ FAI issue.
Wise decision if you ask me. Nov isn’t very far away, and you’ve had this injury all year now pretty much. Get that sorted before your slam effort next year.
