Why oh Why?

Today started out fine.  A little stiff and cold, but fine.  I met up with Meghan for a few miles after an hour of running.  It was slow going with lots of black ice and ice puddles on every street corner.  My pace was surprisingly slow even though I felt pretty fast when I was running.  After I left Meghan back at her place I headed home to drop off my dog, I just didn't have it in me to run with him for four hours today.  Just before the three hour mark I started to become very sore.  My hips and legs were really hurting.  The elliptical is just not as good as time on one's feet.  I went back and forth between feeling good and feeling like I'd been hit by a semi truck.  At one point with less then an hour of running left I nearly cried wondering why on earth I would do this to myself.  Then I texted Jeff for some encouragement and received a few ridiculous photos of he and the dog.  This did cheer me up some, but I was hurting.  Finally I made it home with not nearly as much mileage under my belt as I'd hoped for.  So not only was I hurting, but my ego was slightly bruised as well. More than once, while running, I thought about that fact that I have nearly twice this far to go in March and I'd certainly better get my training going now that it's February (PANIC!!!)  After a shower, a bath, some relaxing a quite a bit of foam rolling I'm doing slightly better (read, I can walk up and down the stairs like a normal human.)  I feel like I should end on some sort of positive note, but I'm not sure how to do that.  I just hope this next week of training won't prove so difficult.

4 hours
17.65 miles
13:35 pace
1 giant blister (it's gross, you should see it)
2 sore legs
1 bruised ego

P.S. I am still glad I went out even though the second half of my run pretty much sucked.  Now I own those miles!  They are mine.  So is the blister.