Endurance: Intrepid Graham Sprigg says he is struggling to adapt to normal life now he has completed the challenge of a lifetime.
The 51-year-old from Hawk Street in Bromham finished the gruelling six-day Marathon des Sables in Morocco in 670th place last month.
But now that he is not devoting hours to training and hasn't got his ultimate goal to aim for, Sprigg admits Wiltshire life is a bit ordinary.
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"The organisers say once you finish there is a sense of aimlessness and dislocation," he said. "One minute you are in the Sahara Desert and then you are driving through Bath - it is quite a come down.
"I'd thought about crossing the finish line every day for the last year but to get there and finish was a tremendous feeling of relief.
"Because I had managed to go the distance it brought satisfaction and accomplishment."
Crossing the finish line in temperatures of up to 125 degrees Fahrenheit meant Sprigg had to battle blisters, the heat and dehydration.
"It was like standing in an oven, it was that hot," he said.
"I was confident I would finish but on the Tuesday I started to shiver, which is a sign of dehydration.
"I'd drunk all my water and I thought at one point I would keel over and be pulled out but fortunately I managed to get to the next check point."
But, because of his determination Sprigg succeeded where 65 people from the 801 starters didn't.
He said: "Mentally, it was more demanding than physically. The interesting thing was, when I got there, I saw all these people who were massively fit.
"But as the week wore on it became apparent those who were physically capable were not necessarily mentally prepared. It was a real leveller."
Sprigg, who will run the Corsham 10k at the end of the month with wife Elaine and daughter Sinead, 20, has already signed up to the six day 151 mile event in 2010 and cannot wait.
"I want to do it again, once you have done it the next one won't be the same because you know what to expect, but it is an incredible journey," he said.
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