Gary Bell is also working towards his goal to become a member of the 100 Marathon Club.
Gary Bell will be running his 44th consecutive Belfast City Marathon this May having already run races on all seven continents including here in Copenhagen
The countdown is already on for the thousands of runners preparing for the 2026 Belfast City Marathon on Sunday, May 3. Those gearing up include Gary Bell who will be running his 44th consecutive Belfast City Marathon having already run races on all seven continents.
The Belfast City Marathon first launched in 1982 with the course starting at the old Maysfield Leisure Centre, with 3021 marathon runners setting off to complete a two-lap course. New events were later introduced including the Team Relay in 1989 and the 8 Mile Walk and Fun Run events in 1997.
The marathon experienced a major course revamp in 2019, taking in more of the city of Belfast; north, east, south and west and its historic sites. The event also moved to a Sunday for the first time ever.
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Ironically Belfast man Gary, 60 and now living in Newtownabbey, actually missed the first ever marathon because he was too young. But he’s now working towards his goal of completing 100 marathons.
He told Belfast Live: “I missed it by six weeks. Obviously you had to be aged 17 in May and my birthday is June 24, so otherwise I would have ran every single one. I’ve applied to do every single one, but unfortunately they turned me down for the first one, but ever since I’ve been old enough to run every one since then, which is 43 consecutively, and of course there was no race in 2020 due to Covid.”
When asked where he got the running bug from, Gary told us: “I ran at school and was always very sporty, playing football at amateur league too and then it just carried on really from there. A guy I knew from many years ago had said to me that he’d signed up to run the first ever Belfast marathon, and it really struck a chord with me, and I thought that would be a fantastic thing to do.
“Then when I tried to apply, as I said, I was only 16 so unfortunately they turned me down but I was determined the next year to run it and that’s really where it was born from.”
But just pounding the streets of Belfast every year wasn’t enough for Gary and his running shoes have travelled to many other marathons around the world down the years. He has completed all six World Marathon Majors: Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York, and the 100th Boston Marathon, as well as the Polar Circle Marathon in Greenland in the Arctic. In the early 2000s, he set off for the Antarctic to complete his biggest challenge yet.
He said: “I’ve run all the marathon majors, New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin, and Tokyo and I’ve run a marathon in all six continents and both polar regions, that’s Antarctica and the Arctic. This will be coming up to number 44 in Belfast, so I’d love to do 50 straight and become a member of the 100 Marathon Club.
“On the morning of the Antarctica Marathon, 120 of us were ready to go but high winds made it unsafe for us to go onshore. We tried again the next day, but conditions were just as bad. The crew scrambled and came up with a plan – run the marathon on the ship!
“The tour organiser and the captain did some sums and worked out that the 26.2 miles would be 324 laps of the lower deck of the ship or 422 laps of the upper deck. Friends and family members who had come along acted as markers and counted down our laps. It was the most bizarre race, we ran half inside and half outside where we saw icebergs, sea lions, and penguins. That’s one you’ll never forget!”
Gary has also seen many changes running the Belfast City Marathon down the years: “In the old days it started off and finished at Mayfield Leisure Centre and later the course took in north, south, east and west of the city. Obviously being Belfast in those days during The Troubles, there were a couple of times it was delayed because of bomb scares. We would be at the start line, then had to go away and come back again an hour or two later.
“There was no relay race in those days so it was just the hardcore marathon runners meaning the field was a lot smaller. I’ve really enjoyed the course, the organisation, the crowds, and it keeps bringing me back every year, so there’s obviously something that really appeals to me.”
For anyone considering giving the Belfast City Marathon a go some day, Gary has this advice: “If you haven’t really been running before, my advice would be to start off and run shorter distances and slowly build it up. If you’re a real novice to running, even go to the gym and start on the treadmill and do a couple of miles on the treadmill and again slowly build it up, and then try the 5km races, park runs, etc.
“Take part in a few of those and from there, you’ve got the 10ks and half marathon until you’re competent and comfortable with the distance. Always talk to marathon runners because there’s no shortage of tips to make it easier for you and for me that’s the way I’ve learned it. I’m not super talented, just an ‘Average Joe’ marathon runner who has run quite a few marathons.”
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