The Waterfront Music Hall, Belfast.
Well I’ve seen Belfast now. It’s a very similar city in many ways to Manchester but with docks. Even the rain made me feel right at home! It has the same kinds of architecture, road signs and money. The fascinating differences for me were the legacy’s from its more violent past which I remember watching on the telly as a child during the 70’s and 80’s. For a start most of the police vehicles are still armoured Land Rovers.
The marathon took us onto the Shankhill Road and passed the wonderfully painted murals on the side walls of many houses. At one point we ran through steel gates that were used to separate the Catholics and the Protestant communities. I got a strong sense this was now all in the past as the gates and the Land Rovers were both rusty as thought they were historical relics of a bygone era and life had moved on. I loved the people, they were so friendly and have a wonderful happy, sense of humour that I think is lacking in England.
As for the marathon, an excellent well organised affair and I would highly recommend it. Unlike any other marathon I have done, there is a huge marathon relay event as well, with more people in that than the full marathon. This is good as you have a constant amount of runners around you, unlike when there is a half marathon and at half way most of the field suddenly disappears. This does create a lot of different paced runners around you as fresh legs keep joining the race. As long as you are aware of this & are comfortable at controlling your own pace then you will get round fine. It didn’t bother me and I found it obvious spotting the relay runners by both their different style running numbers and erratic pace.
My run went like my last few, I didn’t really get into my running until half way. I suppose this could be because of how many I’ve recently done but also because of the horrible wet weather, again. I was half way in 1:47:39 and finished in 3:31:45, which for me another pleasing negative slip and still a fairly good time. Especially since I have now done 3 marathons in 3 weeks.
The course has a good hill near the half way and a cheeky climb in the 25th mile, which was not really appreciated.
There was plenty of rain during the 1st third of the race, the 2nd third was actually mostly dry but for the last 3rd the heavens opened once again. All in all the weather was awful but credit to the organisers and the many volunteers who made it an excellent event. Also my thanks go out to the thousands of spectators that still lined the streets and cheered us soggy runners along.
My funny moment of the day was at the beginning just before the start when the runners all threw off their old tops. Several landed on and stuck to, the top of the many spectators’ umbrellas. I’ve never seen this happen before and as the spectators were squeezed in like sardines they were struggling to get them off.
The ring of Thanksgiving or Belfast speak “Nuala with the hula!”
