After months of training and anticipation, Wired.com guest-blogger Simon Wheatcroft, who is designated as being legally blind, came up just short in his bid to finish the Cotswold 100 ultramarathon this past weekend.

Wheatcroft, who has been diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease and has been recognized as blind for the past 11 years, started off at noon local time on Friday and kept up a extremely good pace during the race’s early stages. Indeed, his 11th mile was faster than any of his previous 10, and it appeared that he had put himself in decent position to battle through the chilly nighttime air and cross the finish line some time after noon on Saturday.

However, just after Wheatcroft was completing mile 83 — which featured the climax of a grueling three-mile-long incline, the final such one of the race route — the physical toll had finally rendered his body inoperable.

Wheatcroft had to pull out of the race, a surely disappointing DNF for a man who had invited us all into his training regimen and showed us that even without sight, your goals are never so far away that you can’t see the finish line.

Wheatcroft will be checking in soon with another guest post, detailing exactly what happened during this past weekend’s race and what goals he has for next year. We do know he plans to retry the 2012 Cotswold 100. Wheatcroft just wants to take a week off from training first.

We think he’s earned it.