New Belfast City Marathon route in 2019 will touch every part of the city

Next year will see a new look Belfast City Marathon after councillors agreed to changes to the iconic race’s route and usual race day at City Hall on Wednesday. The council’s City Growth and Regeneration Committee approved the plans with broad, cross-party support for the new look event, which for decades has seen thousands descend upon Northern Ireland’s capital city each May. Typically costing around £600k annually, the Belfast City Marathon normally takes place on a Bank Holiday Monday, however next year the starter’s pistol will go off on a Sunday morning. Chair of the City Growth committee, SDLP representative Donal Lyons, said the marathon is a great family day out and the 2019 routes should benefit local traders. "The change of day will go down well, because it will allow Sunday marathon runners the day to recovery on Monday and hopefully give Belfast a potential boost for the our tourism trade," he added. Sinn Fein's new council group leader Ciaran Beattie spoke following the meeting and said his party hope "route number one" of the two proposed routes will now go through a successful public consultation with few, if any, speed bumps. "We're really happy, this will be the most balanced marathon yet in terms of geography and it will touch every part of our city," he said.

posted Saturday June 30th