After giving it everything to become the fastest Australian to complete the Western States 100-mile (161km) endurance run in California in July - finishing eighth overall in just under 16 hours - you could forgive Woodford's Brendan Davies if he'd hung up his running shoes for the rest of the year.
After all, he also competed in this year's 168km Ultra-Trail Mt Fuji race in April, finishing sixth.
But the current Blue Mountains Sportsperson of the Year was in no mood to put his feet up.
Instead, the talented 37-year-old headed to the desert heat and humidity of Doha, Qatar on November 21 for the 2014 IAU 100km World Championships, working his way from 40th position to finish 12th in 6:56:45.
"I had to dig deep and tough it out but ultimately I achieved my goal to nail sub-seven hours at the World Championships," Davies said.
"I executed my race plan really well and was only 80 seconds outside a top 10 finish.
"I kept passing other runners - the only problem was I ran out of kilometres and dropped a little pace at the end.
"Looking back now, I don't think I could have done any better in that race."
Last weekend - only two weeks after that mammoth effort - Davies made his debut in the Coast to Kosci ultramarathon.
Widely regarded as one of the toughest ultramarathons in the world, the race covers an incredible 240km from the sand on Twofold Bay to the top of Australia's highest mountain via Charlotte Pass.
Davies scored a top 10 finish but admitted he felt nervous before the race because it was "by far the furthest and longest time running [in an] event I've ever attempted".
He also said fatigue kicked in early on, which meant he was never in touch with the leading runners at the business end of the race.
In punishing conditions ranging from steamy heat to cold, driving winds, torrential rain, storms, fog and even hail, the 2013 North Face 100 winner reached fourth position in the field of 45 runners at the halfway point but faded late to finish eighth in 30 hours and 40 minutes.
Winner Andrew Tuckey finished in an incredible time of 24 hours, 33 minutes and 14 seconds, beating the course record held by Blue Mountains-based athlete Ewan Horsburgh by almost two hours.
Five entrants did not finish the race and after the 35-hour mark the course through Charlotte Pass was closed for safety reasons when the weather became even worse.
"I went through a whole range of emotions because my body just wasn't quite up to it after the World Championships, fatigue set in at about the 60km mark and my glutes gave me a lot of trouble after about 140km," Davies said.
"So I went from having the goal of competing for a top five place to the goal of just completing the race.
"From a performance point of view I wasn't happy with it but I'm really proud of finishing.
"There were many times out there I considered giving it in.
"It was epic."
