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THE ORGANISERS OF the Belfast City Marathon have apologised after today’s participants ran a route that was 460 metres longer than the standard marathon length.
Organisers blamed the extra distance on “human error” after a car leading the runners diverted from the official route.
A marathon distance is set at 26.2 miles (42.2 km) meaning that runners in today’s event actually ran 26.5 miles.
Chairman of the Belfast Marathon Organising Committee David Seaton has apologised to participants and said it will not happen again.
A total of 5,000 people took part in the full marathon, which was being run over a new route in the city.
“On behalf of the organising committee, we would like to apologise to competitors of today’s race. Approximately 460 additional metres were added to the officially measured course of 26.2 miles,” Seaton said in a statement.
This was due to human error, with the lead car diverting from the official route. I can assure all participants that protocols will be put in place to ensure this never happens again.
“In the meantime, we are in the process of adjusting runners times to reflect the correct distance.”
A number of serious competitors have said that the problems will have knock-on effects for their records.
“Great new course, unfortunately for me, I have missed out on a championship qualifying time for London by 7 seconds due to the extra half mile. Quite early on in the race we all noticed the distance was out,” one wrote on Facebook.
Other races were also taking place today including a wheelchair race, a nine mile walk and a fun run. A total of 18,000 people took part in today’s events across all the races.
Kenya’s Joel Kositany won the male marathon in a time of 2.18.41 while his compatriot Caroline Jepchirchir won the women’s race in a time of2.36.38.
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still ran better than stormont
So out the window goes potential records and pb’s. Sorry won’t comfort many of the athletes I feel.
@Logan Shepherd: Still ran a PB. Most runners knew the mileage was out and were taking time from their watches.
@Mr Bojangles: Reading that you ran a pb. Congrats ..
@Logan Shepherd: Thanks man.
@Logan Shepherd: it won’t but what else can they do but only apologise. Or should they receive the death penalty?
@Anthony: Wow .. how is that a sensible response to my point?
@Anthony: Well that escalated quickly.
@Logan Shepherd: When the results and footage of the Men’s and Women’s winners were shown on TV yesterday they said the women’s winner broke the course record. A little odd considering she ran a half a mile longer.
@Anthony: i blame arleen and marylou. Shoot those 2 first and we can start again.
Half a mile longer, not .3. Not ideal but at least we can all claim to have run an ultra marathon today. Very tough course and happy out with my PB 3:55
@Mr Bojangles: Did u run a PB by any chance??
@Tony Donoghue: Yeah, what’s your PB over that distance?
@Mr Bojangles: sorry, modesty forbids
@Tony Donoghue: Yeah, right!
@Mr Bojangles: Did you run it? How would we ever have known…….
Better than .3 miles short. At least you can still say you ran a marathon!
You had ONE job
Missed out on a PB by about 1.5 minutes, can’t do much about it though if I just missed out on a Boston qualifier, I would be a very p*ssed off person right now. I thought the new route was great except the big hill on the Shankill Road, fantastic support in some places, particularly the Ormeau Road, it was like the Tour de France. Only gripe I really had was the baggage collection after the race, it took the best part of an hour in fairly cold conditions. I am sure the organisers will sort this out next year, I will almost be certainly be back
Couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery up there
@Artur Gurta: and we can?
Shur t’will be good for them
Shoddy journalism, its been called snickers for a good few years now
oh god!!! trump has ruined everything
@Liam Meade: you a big John Higgins fan then?
Looking on strava …looks a long longer .. a full km by the looks of it
@gary power: strava has it’s own ideas too. Never accurate.
@gary power: if you run outside the race line, you’ll end up running more than 26.2 miles.
Typical norin iron can’t do anything right laughing stock of the world
Totes smashed my PB. Could have sprinted another 10 miles no bother.
Belfast says to Dublin ‘ My marathons longer than Yours’
Knew including that roundabout was a bad idea!!!
And I thought it could only happen in Kerry (speaking as a Dubliner)
Variant on “couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery” or “couldn’t run a two bit brothel”. Couldn’t run(!) a marathon.
Traditional Route!
Me Strava is ruined
The people of Belfast were great in supporting runners, and it’s a wonderful city to spend a weekend in. The race itself? Shoddy organization. Aside from the extra length, the start and finish areas were very poorly managed. Myself and hundreds of others had to wait an hour post race (where we should be eating, stretching, keeping warm etc.) just to get our bags! I love Belfast but I won’t be running their marathon again.
It looks very disorganised.
And there was a football length of people at the bag drop at the end of the race. Run 26 miles and stand in line for nearly an hour to get your bag.
Brixit Marathon.
I blame Brexit
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