8 miles, what?

Woke up this morning with the intent of meeting running partners for the first time in a couple of weeks for an easy 6. . . key word here is 'easy'. As it turns out I was given the wrong instructions and missed the appointed meeting place by, say a mile. . .I ended up running an easy 8 on my own which turned out not to be so easy. This old body ran hard and over the last two miles I picked up the pace, sprinted for ~ 100 yards and then recovered. In the coming year this is something that I will need to focus on, as well as my hillwork. ugh. GW Birthday is less than 2 months away. What am I thinking?!