Richard Raw’s Race Report: Belfast Marathon
May 28th, 2009My aim at the start of the Belfast Marathon had been to beat the time that I set in Barcelona back in March of 4 hours 21 minutes, and to get as close as possible to last year’s best time of 4 hours 16 minutes that I set in the Loch Ness Marathon.
The first few miles of the marathon passed quite easily and in the later stages of the marathon I was able to pace myself with some of the relay runners. I prefer to push harder in the second half of a marathon. My time at the half way point indicated to me that I was just outside last year’s best time, but I felt myself begin to tire from about fifteen miles into the race. By the end I knew that I didn’t have enough left in me to beat that target, but that if I held myself together that I was on course to beat my Barcelona time. I tired quite a bit towards the end but I managed to keep up enough momentum to finish the Belfast Marathon almost four minutes quicker than the time I set in Barcelona. It was my first time to Belfast and I enjoyed it very much. The crowd support was excellent with people cheering us along almost the entire 26 miles of the route.
The marathon itself started at City Hall and made its way across to east Belfast before cutting back across the city into west Belfast along the Falls Road and continuing northwards along the Antrim Road and then south along the seafront down into the finish at Ormeau Park.
