The sudden death of a young runner touches running spirits everywhere

I’m back running again. There is something inherently flippant about just writing that, considering the countless times over the years when there would always be some good reasons or lame excuses to stop.

It might be the slow or sudden loss of any desire to chase the great beyond, where the greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. Or of any need to fill the unforgiving minute with 60 seconds’ worth of distance run. Or it might be something much less poetic or profound, such as acute laziness, or just the body and mind getting soft.

Then as if I had been kidding myself, for better or for worse, things would change. A barefoot run at dawn along a sandy shore, a reminder that running can and sometimes needs to be discovered all over again.

Some people will always have a hard time accepting their best running years are behind them, but I’ve known that for a long while

Only it’s never come back with any competitive desire, which is a good thing. Some people will always have a hard time accepting their best running years are behind them, but I’ve known that for a long while.

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It’s different, though, when confronted with the swiftly sobering experience of not being able to run. Faced with that setback over the winter, and now thankfully recuperated, it changed the running picture once again. Maybe running another marathon might some day be a good idea, especially after starting out from the impossibly slow and baby steps like I am now. As long as no one else knew about it until it was over.

In some ways, not being able to run for a while has changed the picture around other runners too. Looking at them now with some sort of newfound respect and envy, it’s also given me a fresh appreciation of the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other in relatively swift succession.

Against that backdrop also came the news last Sunday evening of the death of the young runner Ellen Cassidy, who fell ill after completing the half-marathon as part of Cork City Marathon events. Aged 24, and also a champion underage swimmer for Ireland, Cassidy died shortly afterwards in Cork University Hospital.

Then on Monday came the news that Olivia Tuohy from Ennis had also died last Sunday while running the Edinburgh Half Marathon. Aged 25, a former student at Queen Margaret University and working as a nurse in the Scottish capital, Tuohy had also previously played football and camogie with Clare.

Running is, and always will be, far more associated with saving lives, from both the physical and mental side of things

Both Cassidy and Tuohy were in the absolute prime of their lives, with nothing whatsoever to suggest that running carried any sort of risk. Because in the vast majority of people, it simply doesn’t. No popular exercise is entirely without some danger, but running has always been considered perhaps the least dangerous of all. Even compared to cycling or swimming, where those dangers can be more pronounced.

Running is, and always will be, far more associated with saving lives, from both the physical and mental side of things. It’s also different from the racing driver, or the downhill skier, or the matador, even, where that risk to life is a recognised part of their exercise.

“It is our deadly passion, our terrible joy,” Enzo Ferrari tells his drivers in the 2023 biographical film Ferrari. “But once you get into one of my cars, then no one is forcing you to take that seat. You get in to win.”

No one takes up running believing, or even suspecting, it might put their life at risk, which is why the sudden death of any young runner touches on running spirits everywhere.

At Cassidy’s funeral mass at the Church of the Annunciation in Blackpool in Cork, on Thursday, there was a guard of honour organised by Cork’s running community and her former swimming club, Dolphin. The offertory gifts also included a medal she received when finishing the Milan Marathon, along with swimming caps and sheet music, representing the other passions in her life.

Her father, Tom Cassidy, also spoke of how his daughter had “many plates spinning at a time”, and “how she managed to give them all the time, attention, energy, love, and affection is beyond me”. Which is another way of saying she must never have taken any of them for granted.

It may help the runner to understand that they should never take the simple act of running for granted. The loss of any young runner is a reminder of that

In advance of Tuohy’s funeral Mass in Ennis Cathedral on Saturday, the Clare women’s GAA said, “her kindness, warmth, and vibrant spirit touched so many lives on and off the football field, and her absence will be felt profoundly”.

For the family and loved ones of Cassidy and Tuohy, maybe there is some comfort in knowing they were doing something they loved best.

That doesn’t make it any easier for them or any runner to understand. But it may help the runner to understand that they should never take the simple act of running for granted. The loss of any young runner is a reminder of that.

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