A strange night underground

Situation: I need 3 elders in Northrend high-end 5mans to get my first real title for my main. Reality: I have to pug these dungeons to do this. Last night, I managed to invisibility pot my way into Halls of Stone to get that one. truly awesome but this option is not available in larger dungeons. I then get whispered by some dude who wants dps in gundrak normal. Wierd, but i say no, I'm a tank. later I try to get into Gundrak on my own to inspect the invis. option here, but then get more whispers form someone else in the first guy's team to come dps.
Oh, well if you insist. So in we go, and 40 minutes later I feel like I've cleared the dungeon for them (making the 78 warrior tank's job a nightmare in the process i think), doing the highest dps and off-healing to keep the shaman alive on boss fights.
Now I discover, in an empty GunDrak, that the elder only appears in the optional room on Heroic setting. Brilliant, an easter egg. So I find my brother on his 2k hunter main, my guild's top priest, an excellent mage, and Im ready to rock GD heroic. our preferred exguildy DPS druid is AFK, which is a shame, as a run might have cleared a little (imaginary) bad air here, but there we go. I get a stack of whispers from dps, as everyone loves heroics these days, but decide on a ret paladin, as I've yet to meet one that i like. He turns out to be sound as a pound, and is inch perfect at Ret dps. unfortunately, I don't think he's going to want me on his friends list now.
First trash pulls... perfect. First Boss, position good, wipe at 1%. oh, well, we'll take 2nd boss to make first boss easier. Trash pulls over the humps... perfect. Patrol picked up on second pull, no problem. Elementals... slightly chaotic doorway fight, no problem. Second Boss?
First attempt? Rubbish. More Acid pools than floor to stand in, can't stand still for a minute, can't seem to keep the elemental phase threat at all, hunter and mage getting one shotted in moments. hmm. Second attempt: same deal. Priest gets a bit more acidic attention if anything. Third attempt: same again, but less running about from us two paladins, and took maybe forty seconds longer to wipe. hmmm.
At this point, I hate tanking. I deeply loathe it. There's nothing on earth that can prevent me from feeling like its my fault, despite the fact that I've never been here before. In Wotlk, you aren't really allowed to learn on the job, and when you're on other people's time, in a dungeon where youre mostly there to get a non dungeon achievement, not managing to get a boss down is just dreadful. We acknowledge that fourth attempt is last attempt, and plunge into it. It takes about a minute longer, and I think I now know how this encounter is supposed to go. Unfortunately, I'm now too disappointed with my own performance, with GunDrak metamorphosis bosses, with being a tank, with getting a time-limited Meta-achievement and definitely with having a group repair bill of 200G to ever want to go back.
My thanks and apologies to the guys who were there, and here's to next years Lunar Festival, when I might even have a few pieces of tier 7 gear, and hopefully I get the blasted elder by doing DPS duties for some other tank.

Next post. more optimism:-)