I knew that my question would have people laughing at me - I appreciate that 2.5 miles is a very short ride. I tried the other route in my car today (had to attend a telephonic meeting during the commute, and car has bluetooth) and I was pleasantly surprised. The city did some work on some roads recently, and they have marked out bike lanes and sharrows on the alternate route. So it looks like I won't have to sprint as much on the new route - and I'll heed some of the comments in this thread anyway.