My thirty first marathon is going to get a small report. Mainly

because my actual run was exactly the same as Vienna last week,

but also because Belfast lacks something.

I'm not sure what it is that's wrong with this event as Belfast

has a lot of positives. I stayed in the Hilton which is a

fabulous hotel, great location, excellent food and a perfect base

for marathon start and finish. I arrived the evening before

after a quick visit to the 'Expo' which was actually a small

marquee 5 miles from the centre of Belfast with one shop on

display - not really an Expo then? Chilled out for the evening

and looked forward to the task ahead. I arranged, as usual, to

meet Eileen O'Donoghue at 8am in the lobby. We were so relaxed,

not bothered, and generally laid back about the marathon it was

strange. It was Eileen's 21st and my 31st so experience ensured

that nerves were non-existent. We slowly left the hotel with

just 20 minutes to go to race start - relaxed is an

understatement.

So on with the race. Decent buzz at the start, all the usual

faces meeting and greeting: Eileen was more recognised from her

famous Connemarathon photo than I was as Race Director which was

a laugh. And so we were off at 9am. I had no plan in mind, and

nothing really happened until mile 18 when I let loose and ran

very fast for a couple of miles, slowed a bit at 20, slowed more

at 22 and stopped for my first walk at 24. There is a really

long uphill stretch at 24 which I didn't like last year and hated

this year. That was about it. Another one about to end as

quickly as it started.

Finished in around 3:48 - happy enough. Bus straight back to the

hotel just before a thunderstorm soaked everyone. Half an hour

later I was sitting in the bath with a Beer.

Looking back, I think Belfast's problem is its course. It is

largely uninteresting. They had a serious water shortage that

was about to affect anyone over 4 hours, there are stretches of

the course that are through industrial areas or along dual

carriage ways and the crowds were thin on the ground. The relay

runners are a disaster and very distracting. On the plus side,

they did offer a lot of water stations, possibly every mile and

the crowd at the last relay change over point gave us a great

lift. I'll be back next year, but won't be putting it on my

highlight list.

I was handed a volunteers medal at the finish too :-(.

Ray

31 down, 69 to go.