Originally Posted by spokenword
I had a minor crash and two broken spokes 32 miles into my 200K and came really close to just abandoning at that point (I wasn't liking the hills and generally feeling doubtful about my chances) but just knuckled down, jury-rigged a fix and got on with it.
Some excellent advice in this post, but just to elaborate on this with two additional things.
(1) On PBP (or any 1200, or for that matter, any randonnee), at checkpoints, don't stand if you can sit, don't sit if you can lie down
(2) If you feeling like quitting, remove yourself from the scene, eat something, drink something and take a nap, or at least sit down and think of something else. The chances are that your energy and fluid levels are low, and this can have a huge influence on your emotional outlook. Many are the stories of people who have almost quit, but have re-energised themselves and gone on to finish within the time limit, sometimes in atrocious conditions.