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Date: 2018-05-14 05:19 am (UTC)As others have pointed out, getting lost and not hearing beeps mean you probably did a lot more than 5k, and a lot more than 5-minute intervals.
I don't know if the time of day matters for you. For me, for things like playing an instrument, if I want to perform well in the morning, I need to practice in the morning. If your body is used to running sometimes in the evenings then it could be a pretty big shock to do it before lunch, all of a sudden.
It sounds like this was a major emotional stress. Given that, it may not be the best time to decide to give up on running. My instinct is that keeping at it for a while longer (maybe another month or two?) and seeing if you get to a point you're happier with is worthwhile. You can, of course, still quit then, but you might quit without your final experience being so hard.
That said, I think you have successfully proven that you can take two years off from running and come back to it. If you decide to take some more time off to explore something else, it's not like you're throwing away all chances at ever running again. There's nothing wrong with saying "hey, maybe this isn't for me any more, but I gotta do *something*" and spending some time seriously trying out other options. I think we're all (I mean, those of us commenting with "don't give up!" kind of comments) just reluctant to see you do that over what, from the outside, looks like one bad experience that was more to do with non-running aspects of preparation affecting your performance than anything else.
There isn't much that can beat running in terms of convenience, but you could try six other things for a month each and see if you find something you like more. Options for aerobic activity include jumping rope, cycling (fast enough to get your heart rate up), swimming, some of the more exercise-intense dance forms; for general fitness you could also try strength training, Pilates, western fitness yoga. And maybe your ideal routine is some combination: a long brisk walk one day a week, a swim on another, and lifting heavy things on another.