An open letter to Belfast City Marathon

Dear BCM

I lived in hope this year to not have to write to you regarding this year’s race.

There has always been things that participants can overlook within a race as minor oversights however no matter how flawless the marketing campaign, how pretty the medal and how extravagant the finish line, you CAN NOT get the distance and timing wrong!

Many people will wonder why the big deal, half a mile is nothing when you’ve already run 26.2 mile. However 16 weeks of solid training, every aspect of not just your life but of those around you affected, thousands of pounds raised for charity, and we’ll not start on cost occurred by the runner for kit, sports massages and well attending the event. SECONDS are what makes the difference in personal bests, good for age times and sub on the hour times, SECONDS! So half a mile is a HUGE deal never mind the actual conditioning of your body to push on that bit further.

And to be honest, passing off the mistake as ‘human error’ isn’t good enough. You got the 1 thing about a marathon not even a little bit wrong, you screwed it up beyond recognition. And not even a valid excuse that it was an inaugural event. This is the 38th marathon that Belfast has organised so this isn’t your first rodeo.

You can find people to use as a scapegoat to blame but essentially the Race Director is the one who needs to take a long hard look at themselves. Maybe it was a marshal, maybe it was the lead car but they were following directions of the Race Director.

So from very early on, mentally the runners where having to adjust their race plans which they had streamlined down to each mile split which impacted their race physically as they pushed on. Pacers had to also adjust their paces to reflect the mile markers. From those aiming for sub 3s, a matter of just seconds at 6.50min/mile pace will impact the runner substantially. As for people who where going out for Good For Age places for major world marathons, again seconds would have secured the result they needed.

Even back within the 5hour marathoners, I was heading for my own PB. Yet I spent every mile checking with those around me on their watches, wondering when the course was going to even out. I have learnt from my own experience over many marathons that you will clock up extra over the Race due to one thing or another but to jump in the first 4 mile by 0.4 mile. It played havoc with me throughout. I was still running my own race, I had already made peace with myself that I’d take my Garmin time and be content but those who needed official qualifying times can’t use those.

It’s all very sad as this very simple task which should have been the first priority of running such an event has overshadowed what was essentially a vast improvement on previous years.

Yes other things runners can over look, severe lack of toilets at the start line, having to abandon drop bags on the lawn of Stormont as there wasn’t enough vans to transport them back, badly managed relay change overs and first official water stop was well after 6 mile or was that 6.4?

However in addition to the minor oversights the one that sits badly with me is the bag collection. I watched as people’s body temperatures plummeted, lips turn blue, pass out as some waited nearly an hr for their bags for warm clothes and refreshments to replenish their bodies who by the stage I finished had already spent over 5 hours running.

I will commend the marketing campaign this year, you got the numbers increased, you put on Craigavon 3/4 which was a great event and of course the big change was the route and the Sunday race. Which was received well by the majority. Everything was looking so positive apart from the first water stop being so late.

Thankfully the locals all over Belfast came out, the churches in particular where amazing, singing and bands! The Spar orange stops where an amazing addition and most parts of the course where easily accessible to be at multiple points to cheer people on. And this year…no Duncrue! Wohoo!

The medal was great, and the finish line entertainment was plentiful for families.

Yet with all those peripheral aspects being addressed to perfection 2019 will not be remembered as the Year that BCM got it’s shit together and put on an amazing city marathon event to rival others. No it’ll be remembered as the Year you messed up the route and wee Jimmy Joe missed his good for age time for London by 3 seconds due to adjusted times, or the day Noels watch said a sub 3 but the adjusted time had him miss that illusive time yet again after running the race of his life.

So Belfast what are you going todo to make sure this doesn’t happen again as there are a lot of pretty pissed off people out there today when they should be basking in post marathon glory.

Adjusting the times using some pregenerated algorithms isn’t going to cut it. The running community needs more, more than ‘it was human error’ think long and hard, maybe work hard on a response like the thousands of runners who worked 4 months training for your event and spent hours leaving everything they had on the new route.

Awaiting in anticipation

Siobhan Grant