18 Mile Fiasco

Two weeks ago I set out to do an 18 mile run with the option of adding two extra miles at the end if I was feeling good. At least that was the plan. Unfortunately an alarm clock malfunction caused me to wake up late and not meet my group at the start of the run.
Evil Forces 1, Icarus 0.

I woke up at 6am, threw on my running clothes, and left from SigOther's place. Since we start at 6am and there are a few announcements, I figured I could meet them at the sleding hill at Soldier Field where we always stop for water. Unfortunately, my co-group leader decided to take the group north for the first time all season to Northerly Island in order to spread out the 20 mile distance.
Evil Forces 2, Icarus 0.

Not know this, I got to the water stop at about the time my group should have been there so I figured either our Site Leader had a lot of announcements or I just missed them. About 30 seconds later I saw a group coming. It was the 9s lead by my friend SHB. Someone in her group mentinoed that my group had gone north so i asked if i could run with them. Maybe going at a slower pace would allow me to complete 20 today.
Evil Forces 2, Icarus 1.

We ran south and it was uneventful for a while.  The weather was good for a LR and it seemed like I would be able to get 20 miles in after all.  Then I realized that SHB leading the novice group through 18 miles and would add 2 miles at the end.  However, her group had already run two miles before I met up with them, so that meant when we got back to basecamp, I would have only run 16 miles.  I could run two more with SHB and her intermediates, but I would have to do another two miles on my own.

Alas, I did not run those two extra miles on my own. By the end of the 16 I was already dragging.  I managed to do 2 more miles to make it an even 18 (technically 18.5 since I did run the half mile from SigOther's place to Soldier Field Sledding Hill) but couldn't do much more.  When I threw up gatorade, I figured it was time to call it quits.