But still, there is certain lure in trying to run more. Knowing you can bang out 13 miles without really breaking a sweat is a nice feeling. It provides a sense of power over your running. So too, do big numbers. That outlook is flawed, however.
Life can be unfair.
Someone who runs half your mileage or less could go breezing by you at mile 22. That person may not have trained as much as you did, but perhaps trained more optimally, running enough to elicit a training response from their body, but not enough to wipe it all out with the fatigue from overtraining. That is a possible pitfall from accumulating too much mileage. Some runners are simply more genetically gifted than others are, as well. The ability to run faster than someone else is predicated on a combination of God given ability, biomechanics, mental toughness, and proper training.