What I learned on long lonely run

Today was a lonely long run. At first I thought I had 17 miles to run and had mapped out a route for that, but then checked my schedule and realized it was only going to be 15!! Whoo Hoo! And when I got to mile 11 I was happy it was only going to be 15. I started early, 5am. As I had to be back no later then 8am. The husband and I are going to Gatlinburg for a weekend getaway to see friends from Michigan! The first part of the run felt great, and I was learning a few things from this run. Which I will explain later. But for some reason after mile 10 things seem to go down hill, and I'm not talking about the actually hills ( they were more uphills then down).
My IT band is still not back to normal, but had been feeling better this week. At least until mile 10. And that was when I stopped for Gatorade and it just tight, super tight! My knee no longer wanted to bend the right way. Frustration!!!! But I kept moving, slower then I wanted to, but kept moving. I took a few extra breaks, tried to stretch out (with fail), walked some. But I did finally get to mile 15! And the last mile was the worse, it was an uphill battle the entire way!! And yes I walked it, but it was better then crawling!

What I learned on my lonely long run:
~it's much nicer to have conversation with people then your self.
~I need to learn how to pace better, seemed to be all over the place during the 1st part when I felt good.
~I need a new playlist
~never run on Roy Drive again!
~it's really easy to want to quit when alone, but I didn't allow myself to do so.
~I had a bunch of great hashtag sayings but forgot them all by the time I got home. The pain had ended.

No it was not the greatest run, and hopefully that was the one bad run everyone seems to have in training. I didn't really enjoy being alone, but I will have to do it again. I know it will make me a stronger and better runner.

Only 2 weeks till the Georgia Marathon! Wow still can't believe it!!!