The Famine Way Ultra 2025 Back in Action!!

Ed Payne

It's was a while ago I saw first mention of this race on the Facebook machine and I didn’t need asking twice.  Unless you have had your head buried in sand for the past few years you will know that Jen and I organised a fundraiser that saw me run both the canals, also last year on back of our 2 canal challenge my youngest cycled the Royal canal from Dublin to Clondara over three great days!! I’m not speaking outta turn when I say this is kinda my patch!!

So entries opened and I jumped in. No one and I mean no one is gonna run an event on that canal without me in it, was the way I saw it. So with that I reached out to the organisers knowing that accommodation might be an issue in the area. We are not blessed with a thriving tourism industry here in Roscommon, No Cliffs of Moher or Guiness Storehouse, don’t get me wrong, plenty to see but most people wanna see the other stuff first!!

Obviously when signing up I didn’t know that by the time this one came around an array of DNF’s would be crowding my rear view mirror, Beara (Planned DNF but a DNF is a DNF no matter how you dress it up), My suck Valley Way FKT (Storm damage blocked entry to the route, Was I hard stopped? No) Then the blisters in The Spine were just what my quitting head needed at a quitting kinda time in a quitting kinda mood by a quitter who was making a quitters habit and as you can see better and better at making excuses and not finish lines!! I know enough about how my head works to know that I needed to turn the ship or running would again be drowned out by all that other life palaver we busy people actually have to fit in around our hobbies… work, family, cows, grass, holidays, family, cows, employees, cows, family, grass, and 100 million other things…… See I can make an excuse as good as the best of them.

Where was I… Oh ya I reached out to the organisers, offered them a place to stay the night before and somewhere for campers of tents to pitch if that made life any easier and meant we might squeeze a few more onto the start line!! That all worked out a treat and as I always say (Always say, don’t always do) “It’s nice to be nice.”

The start line is less than 20km away so I could fit a full days work in on Friday and that was great for everything except getting ready!! I threw a few bits in the car late Friday, pretty much the exact same way they came out after the return from over the water… Grr. We were ready, Jen in Crew car after she got some shit sorted of course cause well its only up the road and its only 100 miles and it only on the canal. What the Fuss? This time my youngest (The canal cyclist) was in the crew car too and how vital did that turn out.

Road shoes on and 9am strikes and 30 something of us hit for the flats! We left Strokestown house like 1490 men, women and children did so many years ago, driven out by the famine in the country at the time to head for Dublin and board Ships there. I’m not one to dwell on the past but its always import to be aware of it, after all it’s the only thing from which we can gather facts, something proving harder and harder to find in this fast moving future obsessed world we move in.

Great to see locals and familiar faces at the start line. Great to see an amazing local amenity and attraction getting some attention. Photos taken, bottles filled, nods given, high 5’s slapped and countdown complete we stepped into the first running of the Famine Way Ultra!! 21km on road to Clondara where we dropped onto the canal, what can I say about the course after that only you keep outta the water but right beside it. Sometimes you turn a corner a swear to yourself you went around that corner a few mins ago. Sometimes the canal reaches out into the distances and you wonder what you did wrong in a past life to deserve the impending torture you in sue to reach the next corner that at that point your convinced is three counties away. The route is up hill to Mullingar and downhill from there with a total gain of less that 500 meters, no offence but some multi story car parks have more lift than that!!

I felt ok to start, the lead up had not been pretty and the day before my lower back (Occupational hazard injury type thing, been lifting and dragging bits and pieces too heavy since I could crawl) had given me plenty of reasons to pull pin, aches, pains sorta shit that normal people would probably go to a doctor about. Anyway, 30km slipped by, maybe 40, I was in my early doors usual leading position knowing I shouldn’t be here and then things got real. Lower back stiffened up, pain across and tightness down, stride had to shorten, I leaned to find comfort, I walked to avoid either screaming in pain or crying in disappointment.

As always I let crew know (most of it) and walk ran what I could. Everyone on the course was so positive, they always are, but they were. Lovely positive “You’ve got this!!” attitude. The pain didn’t go away, I dropped a few places, I wasn’t bothered, not by that (Honestly)…. I was bothered though….. I can’t quit again. Stop telling yourself you’re doing untold damage to an already hooped back and need to just stop this running carryon. Your too busy for this, marathons can be fun too you know!! There is other ways to find out how demented you are and they don’t wreck your back, your family time and some might say your business potential!! The demons were at it full bore.

I met Jen, I changed shoes, cause when your at war inside a change of shoes has to help. Jen knowing my racing calendar, threw the first grenade, well if you cant finish this one there is no way you can do the big one in two weeks (Top Secret, Don’t even trouble yourself with asking), but a spark lite inside, the quitter wasn’t expecting that and the stayer had a foundation to build upon. But then just as I was lacing up to leave and try “One more time” Jen unbeknownst to herself told me something that lite a fire that was never gonna be put out….

Aaron my youngest who had been a crewing super hero till that time it must be said and was absolutely On it all morning had been obviously listening into my voice messages to Jen to which he said to his mother….

“I’d prefer Daddy came last and enjoyed it than came first and was sore or not happy!”

Holy moly I was getting life lessons from a nine year old and he was so right. I try to set a model for my young lads to follow in and I don’t get it right very often and to be honest this was probably showing more of his mother than it was of me but as I crawled away from them and tried to get a jog on I was reminded as to why I was here, to finish. I had sworn to Jen, to myself, to the lads that I was gonna stop the DNF rot, I obviously would have loved to represent well on my local ultra but one step at a time I came to finish, and now thanks to Aaron and his insightful view of my situation all of a sudden I was not gonna quit, I came with one task and I was gonna do that thing.

The kms started to slip by again, I was struggling but once you’re ok with the struggle and tell yourself that the chat is over, the job is on and the target is locked in its quite remarkable what the body can do when the mind has no other choice!! I think I dropped to 6^th, maybe 7^th but I was run walking ok, food was good, weather was hot and water was going down easy. We knew the route, Aaron reminiscing his cycling, Jen sometimes confused whether we were on the Royal or the Grand but as always absolutely flawless.

100 miles never gets shorter but when you’ve ran a few and even a few longer ones you develop a little bit of an experience locker, one you can pick into when your 60/70/75/77/80 miles into the race, experience that cant be bought, read up on or is on the mandatory kit list. It was with this little bit of experience, Aarons wise words, Jens grenade,  a lot of pig ignorance and a generous dosing of luck that I managed to pick my way back up the field and found myself in 2^nd place. At least an hour behind 1^st at this point and even though rummers spreading that he was under pressure out there I can only think that he too has a bit of an experience locker that he called on as he ran an excellent race and was never going to be troubled by me, even on a better day I sure of that!!

The night closed in and to be fair for a relative same same type course the darkness was a bit of a release from the never changing picture to yes a never changing picture but at least one I could manage!!

Back in second place and very happy to be there the goal became sub 20, this was the new mental driver to get me to run when walking was such a comfort!! Croke park came and went, Kerry  and Donegal getting their beauty sleep at this point as this was their big day but not for a few hours yet. I crept through the city getting those looks of….. What sorta tool, goes running at this hour, and the back back on and all…Twat!!

19hrs 48 odd mins and I grabbed Aarons hands and we ran under the arch, I hugged him, I kissed him, I thanked him and he had no idea. He said well done, I asked for a seat!!

It was done, A medal collected. But a very badly needed mental shift was now in motion. 3 to zero was now 3 to 1. Momentum with the stayer now, push through complete, more experience unlocked, plenty of questions asked and answers found. However, more than anything a lifelong membership ticket to the crew vehicle gained by Aaron my new motivator. Both of us will remember this day for many many years, I remember it as the day I finished only because of what he said and he remembers it as the day Dad was a Hero. Only one of these memories I see as fact, yet both are locked in History, and both have changed the future!!