TRIng to Survive: Why do I do this to myself?

Gasping for air, legs are burning, I can almost feel the vomit rising, I'm talking about racing a 5k or 3.1 miles. Today I raced my second 5k for a time, the annual Lake Merritt Couples Relay. Now I've said before that I love and am addicted to endurance athletics, however, every once in a while I get talked into the 5k (dun, dun, dun...). I love endurance athletics because you can take your time and although it may get difficult toward the end I still can get through to the finish and know I've accomplished something not many people can or have achieved. However, these 3.1 mile races kick my butt and the distance leaves me feeling I should put a few more miles in after. For those of you that prefer and love running the shorter races I truly admire you and wish I had your passion. So this is how the 5k works:

You are jam packed behind a white line made of flour (or at least in this case) where you are trying to stay warm and hear the race director as they go over directions that you'll never remember. Chances are they could just say follow the flour arrows and the lake should always be on your right or you're going the WRONG WAY!

Next, they start with the on your mark, get set, go! business. This is when all hell breaks loose. Now today's race was a relay so the female (or more feminine partner for all male or all female teams) runs the first leg (3.13) miles and the male (or more masculine female) runs the second leg. This means that there are fewer people than usual at the start, which is nice and means my boyfriend and I will each take turns suffering. Here I am starting out calm and collected.

The 5k is so short that you'll be done in 20 minutes or so which means you have the opportunity to push yourself as hard as you possibly can for the full thing and maintain a pretty fast pace. Doing this in theory sounds easy after running 26.2 miles, but it is a real butt kicker.
Make sure you don't go out too fast or you'll blow-up, but don't go too slow or people will pass you (you want as many road kills as possible). As the chaos ensues you're struggling to breath and you look down at your watch thinking, "This has got to be almost over." But no, you've only run 1 mile and you still have 2.1 to go. This is where you start saying "just a little further, just a little further, I can do this!" As the woman behind you tries to catch you, you push yourself a little harder and a little further thinking "Oh hell no! You're not passing me today lady!" You keep this motion and mentality as long as you can trying to catch up with as many people as you can. The cold headwind is making it harder to breath and a day that started out so damn cold is now so freaking hot, but I can't take my arm warmers off, it will take too much time and I'll need to slow down.

Fortunately, just when you want to give up you see the finish line, then the deadly sprint begins where you try to cross the finish line and not vomit, in this case Nick's 5k experience begins. Overall, a good race, Nick and I finished 5th in our age group and 17th overall... I PRed with a 21:52, or 7:03 minute miles, and a 10k couples time of 40:53. I'll probably give myself another month before I try to conquer the 5k again.