Out Too Fast

For the first time I can remember in a very long time, I actually did not fully complete my long run.  Went out for a planned 18-miler and stopped after 16 miles.  Sure had fun up till the end, though!  Joined the Runner's Edge 11:00 pace group on their 14-mile road course Saturday on very pretty, rolling hill course.  After 12:00 and 11:30 opening miles, we settled into a very steady 10:30 miles.  I was having a ball -- felt strong and steady, and the hills were work but very doable.  Normally, I would put the extra 4 miles needed to get to 18 out at the turnaround, but against my better self knowledge (I am crap at pushing myself at the end of a long run), I changed plans to add them at the end in order to hang with two other runners going long.  Their logic was that the only flat part of the course was the first 2 miles.  So I changed plans to hang with them.  On the return leg, we missed a turn with the result that we logged 16 miles back to the start.  However, I bonked down to 13:33 pace for the last 1.5 miles, was totally out of gas, and called it quits when I hit my car at 16 miles.  Lessons learned:  (a) don't hang with the popular crowd if it means going back out for extra miles at the end of the run, and (b) need to "run with my brain" (this assumes I have one...) as Rob suggested a few weeks back.  Oh well -- up to the end, I really did enjoy the run!  -- Bill