It was at this stage fuelled by the sugar in my tea, and a determination to go for it, I choose to run in the dark with my head torch and hand torch - the running beast was unleashed!
A number of walkers were surprised to find someone running past them but they always cheered me on as I flew like someone possessed up and down the trail. The "pedestrian" lady particularly shouted lots of encouraging support as I passed her.
Mid-way in this stage, I would pass the first of two pairs of power-walkers, the first being two unsociable women. The second pair were male, built like the proverbial brick outhouse, and almost certainly army types - again unsociable, and I would play leapfrog for about two miles as the route got technical in places, including a jammed gate that meant you needed to climb over it but eventually I would pass them for a final time as the terrain became like my Wherryman's Way training runs, and that was the last I would see of them, as I picked up the pace into the last Aid station before the end.
Again I had hot cup of tea with a large spoonful of sugar, grabbed some grub, and started on the last seven-ish miles, which continued with nice terrain to start with, then it turned into very stony ground where I needed to make a stop to empty tiny stone chips from my shoes - always interesting trying to balance on one leg whilst doing this in the dark having run about 57 miles ......
After few miles of this stony ground I was really hoping for better terrain but with 2.5 miles to go, I would have to endure nearly two miles of the worst terrain ever - I can only describe it as if a large tractor or monster truck had churned up the path and it had set rock solid - completely un-runnable, and barely walkable.
Eventually after forever, I got pass this and could hear music from the finish but before this you run into Avebury, run past the turning to the finish for there is a loop to the Avebury Stones, which at 2.30am in pretty much darkness is hard to see - I was going to head back at 5am for the sunrise but the heavens opened at 4am.
With the loop done, I headed to the finish line, stopped half a km from the end to strip off the mid-layer, so for any finish line photo, I could have my race number visible - as it was, there was no photo taken but a dozen people cheered me over the line at 2.40am, some 18 hours and 40 minutes after I had started.
I collected my luggage bag, and headed for the showers where I would be for 40 minutes as I forgot to get the tie cut on my zips for the luggage. I spent 15 minutes stark naked trying to bust the zips, which I eventually did.
I had a final hot cup of tea with sugar, along with a chilli hot dog with all the trimmings, something I thoroughly enjoyed both.
The "pedestrian" women came in about 2.5hrs after me, and we congratulated each other.
I spent most of the next three hours chatting cheerfully to the female medic, with the endorphins crashing about about an hour before we left on the scheduled bus back to the start of the race.
On the bus I met an amazing women who completed the whole 100k, pulling a car tyre behind her, and this was not her first, as she had done many ultras and marathons pulling this tyre.
With no sleep in 27 hours, I drove the 20 minutes back to my hotel including 10 minutes on the motorway before getting about 4.5 hours sleep.
Having woke up, I decided the need for a cappuccino outweighed any sleep needs, so I shuffled the steep inclinations that passed as roads to the shopping centre where I did indeed get a cappuccino, a hot panini, and a cheesecake.
When you've run 100km and had just 4.5hours you will also look this knackered.......
I will do one update on the Race to the Stones, which will be my summary of reflections about the experience.
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