I had an 18-miler scheduled today and had to do it on the track because of high winds. I finished with no walking (aside from water breaks) so this was a big confidence-builder for me. My last two long runs haven't been so great, but this one was comparatively easy. I'm a little disappointed in my time (about 3:08), but I'm at the point where the most realistic goal for me is just to finish the marathon without walking. When I originally started training for this thing, I thought a 4:00 marathon would be a good goal, but now I realize that that's completely unrealistic for me. A 9:09 mile is like walking if I'm only doing 3-5 miles, and I could definitely sustain that over a half; there's no doubt in my mind at all that I could crack 2:00 in a half-marathon. But on training runs I have a very difficult time even maintaining a 10:00 pace once I get past 15 miles or so, and obviously I fell short of that pace on this run. I could have picked up the pace somewhat on the last few miles, but it would have been like maybe speeding up to 9:30 or so, and that would have felt like a full-blown sprint at that point. There is absolutely no way I could have done the last 3 miles or whatever at 9:09. This was the longest run I've done so far, and it's the second-longest run in my program (with a 20 miler scheduled in two weeks). The pain in my legs when I finished this run is hard to describe. I could have gone a couple more miles if I hadn't stopped, but once I came to a full stop my legs were somewhere between excruciating pain and pins-and-needles numbness. I tried the ice bath thing, but I couldn't handle the cold. Little Ivan in particular seemed to be screaming "WTF?! What did I ever do to deserve this, you #######?!"This experience has definitely increased my respect for people who do distance running. Not that I thought it was easy before or anything, but turning in a respectable time is much harder than I thought it was going to be.