The ugly side of the long run

Saturday morning, I posted a 24 mile run from my parents' house in Tullahoma to Manchester and back. It took me 4:04:19 which translated to a 10:10/mile. One would think...wow, that's not bad for a training run, right? Well...yes and no. Considering that the week before I did 22 miles at 10:17/mile, yes it was a good run. Considering that I have only been running a year, 10 minute miles for 24 miles are pretty good. Now for the frustrating part...well, at least for me. 17 miles into my run, I had been clipping along between 8:30-9:45/mile without too much pain. Then I cross the magical barrier of mile 17, and it's like someone stabbed me in my left calf. After that I play chicken with the pain, running as far as I can till it hurts bad enough to stop and walk before I do it again. I notice by mile 20 that my whole body is starting to hurt now. My feet are burning, my back is sore, and my kidneys feel like someone has taken a bat to them. Each step is struggle, but the thing that really hacks me off is that I didn't finish my run in under 4 hours! Just call me wussy boy. Later kids.