An Aussie running across France

A very short update as really i feel i should be asleep as i type this (now re edited using notes i wrote at the time and lengthened, original was longer and more rambling - ie typical me however Blogger went down when i entered it):
Day 7: Run through wineries and cornfields as well as passing a big wine bottle made of bottles: 7th in 6:02, very flat which meant i found it hard to run. Certainly the day i found the value of frozen vegetables. Having two incredibly sore knees, and not much ice around decided the local supermarket was the place to be, probably the best value i've ever got for 1.31 Euros was a kilo bag of frozen chips (certainly they aren't called "French Fries" here), place wasn't big enough for frozen peas or beans (which in theory would have covered the knees more thoroughly and worked better) but after 3 hours lying down with them was not complaining reckon i had a new set of knees and certainly the next day proved their worth.
That night we had Mayoral Drinks at the town hall which is in the remains of the 15th century "Castle Chateau de Monts", our race director was given a local award (something similar to the Key to the City is how i would best explain it), and we tasted some of the local wines and then off to "Le Cheval Blanc" (even i know enough French to get that one "The White Horse") for dinner (sooner or later i will get used to 3 course meals the body will wonder what's happened when i'm back home and one course only).
Day 8: 8th in 6:37:01, finish in lovely historic town Angles-Sur-l'Anglin, shame the last few hundred metres are all downhill though, river (with walks listed of up to 300 K's) is just down the road so i spend afternoon cooling legs in river, unfortunately town appears to mean no supermarche so it's river instead of frozen vegetables. Very new gym, however the downside being that there are no showers only a hose !.
It was a free night meal wise and the only restaurant with a full menu that night knew we weren't going anywhere else, so some of the slowest service i've ever known (thankfully being a bit late there meant i didn't get as bad as some of the earlier people).
Day 9: The day from hell, i've never had shin splints before till today and did they hit me 9:24 in 24th place no idea how i'd last the next day. Really can't add much to this one, at the 40K mark my legs suddenly didn't feel they were my own and when i hit the next drink stop felt as though they had been "possessed", at that point was running around 13th, but the next two stops saw me being passed by groups of 5 or 6 each time and i could do nothing about it. We were all supposed to be looking happy at the 54 K point (half way point of the race), but i'm sure that the picture taken did show no joy what so ever (yeah i could see the end - not 575 K's away more like 5K's !).
Only positive was last drink stop (60K's) was passed by another group of 5 and couldn't do anything but keep them in sight, however with the city in sight and spurred on by the fact a couple now had their crew pacing them in (all within the rules but it's little things like that fire me up), caught 2 in the last K. No idea about our finishing town "St-Sulpice-les-Feuilles" as i spent most of the night worrying just how i could physically stand up and run the next day.
Day 10: One of those days, having spent most of the night wondering how i would actually be able to run the next day, was woken to hear rain (anything else to make it more miserable ???), realised early on that running wasn't an option (if i could describe the feeling of shin splints i would but frankly it was sort of an out of body experience). Knew things were not looking good when i was passed by Malou and Jim to slip into last overall at 25K's, however after that the persistent rain appeared to have a painkilling (numbing at least) effect and firstly found i could walk faster and then having passed a few found if i totally ignored pain (the brain does strange things) i could run finished 22nd in 8:23 but who knows how many days like that the body can take ?