For the day that’s in it, my Thought for the Day on the Belfast Marathon featured this morning on BBC Radio Ulster.
You can listen here, or read the text below.
For those of you wondering how I got on, I was third in 2.45.03 – well off my personal best. But after a painful stitch struck at around 14/15 miles – a problem I had in my last marathon in April that I had hoped I had sorted this time – I was grateful to finish.
And for those of you wondering – yes, this Thought for the Day was pre-recorded!
Time is Short
Today, more than 8,000 athletes will be pounding the streets in the Belfast City Marathon, running us out of lockdown and breathing life into the city. God willing, I’ll be among them.
I ran the last Belfast Marathon. It was the first to take place on a Sunday rather than the traditional May Bank Holiday Monday. This prompted considerable consternation. There are many churches along the route. Some worried that travel to worship would be disrupted – a valid enough concern in a region that has more regular churchgoers than anywhere else in Western Europe. Others are Sabbatarian in principle, affronted by any sport on Sunday.
In the early miles of that race, a man waved a bible at us as we ran past, shouting: ‘you should be in church’. I’m told that there was a Sabbatarian protest near the 24th mile. By that point I was too weary to notice.
But many other churches along the route moved their morning worship outside, serenading us with hymns as we ran along. One woman held a sign aloft that said: ‘Run like you’re late for church’.
I like to think that those cheering us on understood that running can be an act of worship, opening people up to an experience of God. And believe me, even ardent atheists will be saying some prayers in those last painful miles.
Back in 2019, the route did not go by the late Rev Ian Paisley’s Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church, as it had previously. Paisley was a noted Sabbatarian, so this somehow seemed appropriate. This year, the route has changed again and weary runners will be stumbling by his church once more, somewhere around the 25th mile.
Above the doors of Martyrs Memorial is a massive clock and an inscription: ‘Time is Short’. For Paisley, this was doubtless a call to be mindful of Christ’s second coming, as well as a reminder that our own time on earth is limited.
Now, mile 25 of a marathon may not be the best place to reflect on your own mortality. But that message – time is short – can also be understood as encouragement to live life to the full, straining against your own limitations. That’s a thought to keep runners pushing on to the finish.
(Image: first three women at the 2021 Belfast Marathon, left to right: Ciara Hickey (2nd), Fionnuala Ross (1st), Gladys Ganiel (3rd). Photo sourced on Athletics Ireland Twitter.)