Doesn't Matter; Still Ran

So my current PR is 7.5 miles, only stopping for water twice. No walking, no rests. And I've only done it once. Today was my day to try again, though six days from my last run, and several nights of drinking were not the best preparation. Still, I felt pretty good when I started. The first mile didn't feel as great as my last run, but it felt solid. A good start. The circuit takes me from my apartment to Prospect Park and back. It's two miles from my door to where I enter the park, right at the bottom of the big hill. The park's loop is 3.35 mils, and then two miles back. Sounds simple until you run the course and realize how many freaking hills there are. I powered up the first hill toward Eastern Parkway still feeling pretty good, cruised the downhill, then hit the park. The big hill in there didn't deter me much, and I thought I was in good shape, but I never hit that runner's zone. On the contrary, after mile three I was breathing very hard and noticed everything below my waist going south. My quads and calves were tightening, soreness was building in my knees, and my feet started to ache. I was ready to try and push through all of that, though, when my arms started tingling. It always freaks me out a bit when that kind of stuff happens on a run so I quickly decided to take a breather, luckily right by a water fountain. I ended up sitting listening to some band sound check for tonight's Celebrate Brooklyn, trying to stretch a bit and keep loose. To little avail. When I tried running again I made it maybe a mile before having to stop again. I broke for water twice more, but I was barely able to finish the loop and get out of the park. Spurts of running on the two mile stretch back home were few and never lasted long. My legs had started to tighten seriously at this point and it was all I could do to walk the rest of the way home. Previously I might have taken this run as a failure. I might have been frustrated with myself, with my inability to focus and push, with my lack of preparation. But in the end, even if it was short of my goal, this was still a 5 mile run. Two miles longer than my normal workout. Add to that the fact that today was a beautiful, blue-skied, breezy day. Being out in that at all would have been enough to lift my mood, let alone hitting a tough 5 miles. This run has taught me, though, that I can't keep running twice a week and expect to improve. I really need to get out there more if I want to increase my distance, which shouldn't be as hard as I'm finding it since this is something that I actually like doing. Inertia is a tough thing to beat, in writing and in running. Hopefully I'll be able to defeat it in one and that will make it easier to handle in the other.