Limerick or Belfast marathon.

Lazare

Good luck to all of you running today. Enjoy it.

dha28862

Limerick

Well I thought the Limerick marathon was excellent. Would love to hear about the Belfast one.

The good points about Limerick:

-start and finish in city centre, so very accessible; walking distance from loads of hotels and bus and train station. No need to trek out to the start line, or get a shuttle bus back in at the end. Plus it being a Sunday, the usual parking restrictions in the city centre didn’t apply.

-the start (Pery Square) and finish (O’Connell St) both had a super atmosphere, both felt like a big city marathon.

-loads of volunteers at all parts of the course, and loads of water and Lucozade available. Also loads of toilets at start and finish line, and around the course.

-huge variety on the course itself; running down a very empty O’Connell Avenue and around the Hunt museum in the early morning was great fun; the bit around UL and the canal was very serene, felt like I was out for a relaxing Sunday run. Then back into the city centre and joined by thousands of people doing the half, so it turned into a very different type of race. Then some running on a motorway (!), random suburban housing estates, back through the Georgian bit of the city, then the million euro houses around the north side, and then a huge finish. Can’t say I’ve run a race like that before.

-the route (starting and finishing in the city centre and running through it again at 20km and at 30km) is brilliant for spectators; and you didn’t have to do laps of the same bit of the city (I generally avoid races that involve laps, I find them soul destroying on long distances).

-the medal was nice and chunky, loads of drinks and bananas at the end, and a free tshirt. They posted out the bib in good time and the race instructions were clear.

-the atmosphere around the city was great; when I was walking to the start line, loads of random strangers were wishing me luck, and there were people standing outside their houses cheering and handing out sweets pretty much everywhere. Real sense of civic pride around the place, it made a real difference.

So I’d definitely recommend it overall. Really well organised and supported, and a great, unique route.

The only real potential downside is the flip side of it being varied! If you like big city marathons with cheering crowds, you might find the first half a bit quiet; and if you like a more challenging cross-country vibe, meeting thousands of half marathon runners who are fresh on their legs mightn’t be ideal. I loved all that though, it meant the time passed really quickly cos it almost felt like I was running a series of different races rather one continuous one. Horses for courses I suppose!

Lazare

Great review, am so glad you had a great day. That's all we want from these things really.

You've sold it very well, may consider it.

Qwerty27

Quick summary from Belfast.

No issues with race number collection, free parking, no queues Sat afternoon, expo was pretty small and in and out in no time.

Bus out to the start in Stormont from city centre, plenty of transport and no queue for bag drop either.

Start was a bit busy with so many relay runners who should have started back a little and caused a bit of traffic in first mile!

Course was grand, good support in a lot of places, plenty of interesting “culture” on view at times!

At about mile 18 there was a drag of a climb, Oldpark road which I thought would never end!

Mile 24 was an uphill along the Ormeua Road before finally facing for home.

Overall, I’d say about 3,000 full marathon runners and 10,000+ relay runners, which led to a bit of traffic at times but on other hand probably added to the atmosphere.

Bottle of water and a dry cereal bar at the end was a bit of a letdown but wouldn’t be a big issue. T-shirt very plain but again not a biggy.

Overall, I’d recommend it, seem to have learned their lessons in terms of organisation. No frills or anythign fancy but good support and people were friendly!

Pawwed Rig

Ran Belfast this year. Overall I enjoyed it being only my second marathon. I was on the verge of switching to Limerick when I realised that the number had to be collected the day in Belfast however a running buddy of mine went to Belfast on the Fri and collected it for me. 👍🏾

The day itself was fine. Interesting city and great to be reminded of all the place names that we used to hear on the 6 o clock news in the 80s. Organisation wise there were buses from city centre to Stormont and again from the finish line back to city centre. Very little waiting about. I had no issues with the relay runners.

Crowds were fine. My only point of comparison is Dublin and Dublin wins on that point.

Info was great and plenty of contact in the run up.

Negative were lack of toilets and pacers not staring sequentially. 4:15 pacer started in front of 4hr pacer which screwed up my game plan in the early part of the race as I started to second guess myself.

The cost of entry was £42 so buttons in comparison to Dublin. Limerick was what? €70? Tshirt was fine. Nothing to write home about but I've gotten worse.

Both are equidistant to my house so hard to say. One of these days I might do Limerick and give a better comparison.

T-Bird

Belfast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120731566#Comment_120731566

Ahh that clears that up, I couldn't find the 4:15 pacers but was confused when I saw them in the pictures afterwards..