Colm O'Regan: the 5k makes you look harder for the hidden gems

"It makes you scour the big circle to see what is surprisingly closer than you thought. It makes you put out a message to Whatsapp inquiring if there is any other bloody thing to do in this 78.54 square kilometres at all."

Warning: This column may contain traces of looking on the bright side.

I think it’s important to put that warning in. It can be extremely annoying to be told to look on the bright side just while you’re trying to process the dark side. Another beaut is ‘others have it worse.’ We’re probably culturally pre-disposed to it here anyway because so many generations were told to offer it up.