Boom!!!

 Hardmoors 160 DNF, Lakeland 100 finished, Hardmoors 55 finished and Hardmoors 60 DNF!!!!

Its been a long tough summer, with races stacked up and injuries holding me back.  I've had a few niggles and one fairly bad injury that have just seemed to last forever.  My knee just did'nt get better and at first I thought I'd done some lasting damage but thankful I've come through it.  Its first test was the Hardmoors 160 which it was going to be a make or break situation.  There was no way around it, the knee wasn't right but I knew it would be ok to a certain degree.  It was ok as long as I didn't bend it too much but a slow run was ok, less pressure on it and sustainable.  My plan was to just try get through the first 50 miles protecting it as much as possible and pushing too hard and then by that time it would hopefully be warmed up and other parts of my body might be hurting by then to distract me from it ha ha!  Without doing a full race report, the HM160 went actually very well, I was on form for so long and feeling reasonably comfortable for so much and following my eating and drinking plan perfectly.  It all fell apart just after Kildale so between 120 and 130 miles.  I'd stopped and helped a fellow runner who was in a bit of a mess and needed assistance.  She was unable to continue and was gradually getting worse and worse and my fear was she'd start suffering with hyperthermia.  She was unable to call for help so I rang the medic and he asked me to carry to the checkpoint.  This was approximately 1.5-2 miles away, so no chance on my own lol!  Another guy was passing us and stopped to help, so we both carried her to Kildale and the medic.  I wouldn't change what I did as I'd hope someone would help me if in a similar situation, but what I didn't realise was how much energy it sapped from me and was one of the things that I think tipped me over the edge for a few reasons.  Anyway, my knee was fine, the body as a whole ached yeah sure and my legs were saw but that wasn't why I DNF'd.  The mind was a mess going up the hill out of Kildale, I couldn't keep my eyes open I was fighting with myself to stay awake but I was beginning to lose that battle.  After a few short breaks, sitting down in random places, fellow runners passing me quite often now by this point, I decided to call Sarah.  Oooops!  I never call her, not on purpose but my phone is never really accessible and I try to save the battery as I know it runs down quickly if on.  I couldn't speak coherently, my texts were short and distressing to her.  I was basically saying I couldn't keep my eyes open and I needed her to do something to help.  She obviously panicked and headed out to find me.  Anyway to cut a long story short, she eventually caught me up, she'd run from Kildale and I'd been expecting her from the other direction but she didn't realise I was still moving.  So after her initial hostile reaction to meeting me and almost killing me, we got to the car and Jonesy my mate who was helping us.  My mind was done I'd broken my positivity and the momentum had gone. I'd talked myself out of it, again arrrrggghhhh!!!!!