Welcome to our mile by mile guide to the 2026 Belfast City Half Marathon.
The race begins and ends on Ormeau Embankment on Sunday, September 20th, taking runners through South, East, North and West Belfast. It is flat, fast and scenic in places. In others, it is a dual carriageway with opinions.
Across 13.1 miles, you will encounter riverside paths, historic landmarks, murals, industrial estates, one large fish and enough sharp turns to make you question the course measurer’s emotional state.
Here is what awaits.
Start to Mile 2: Ravenhill Road and Hipster Central
The race begins on Ormeau Embankment, a stone’s throw from the mighty Asia Supermarket. Fun fact: because it is classed as a wholesaler, it can open at nine on a Sunday and dodge Northern Ireland’s strict Sunday trading laws.
You set off along the embankment heading northbound before turning right onto Ravenhill Road and heading south. Any temptation to tear through the opening few hundred metres should be resisted. The race is 13.1 miles long. Nobody has ever received a medal for winning the traffic lights.
Mile 1 comes along Ravenhill Road, with Belfast City Playing Fields on your left and Ormeau Golf Club on your right. Early morning golfers may be attempting to convince themselves that standing in drizzle for four hours counts as leisure. At least runners eventually go home.
The course curls around the southern end of the circuit before joining Ormeau Road and sending you north. You are now entering the modern capital of artisan Belfast. Expect Asian restaurants, bakeries, Vietnamese coffee, vintage football shirts and enough ironic moustaches to populate a nineteenth century cavalry regiment.
Mile 2 arrives as you make your way back towards the city. Two miles completed, eleven still waiting. Best not to think about that too deeply.
Miles 2 to 4: The Towpath, Mays Meadow and Albert Bridge
Continue north along Ormeau Road and cross the Lagan over Ormeau Bridge before turning right onto the riverside towpath. Ormeau Park sits nearby looking lovely and contributing absolutely nothing to your route this year.
The River Lagan now takes over as your companion. It is calm, pleasant and moving with considerably less discomfort than you are. Mile 3 arrives along this stretch as the path carries you towards the city centre.
The route turns left beside the Allstate building, a vast wall of glass with all the warmth of an airport printer. From there, turn right through Mays Meadow, a name suggesting buttercups and grazing cattle. Belfast responded with offices, traffic and concrete. The meadow had a difficult planning meeting.
Lanyon Station appears nearby before you turn right onto Albertbridge Road and cross the Lagan for the second time. This brings you towards Mile 4 and into East Belfast, with the Harland and Wolff cranes beginning to loom over the skyline.
They are difficult to miss. Belfast built two enormous yellow cranes and has spent the years since making sure they appear in every photograph ever taken within six miles of the city.
Miles 4 to 6: East Belfast, Narnia and a Suspicious Number of Turns
Continue along Albertbridge Road, a dual carriageway so unexpectedly tidy that you may suspect somebody ironed it. Murals, corner shops and the occasional early riser heading for a fry line the route. They will look at you with the quiet confusion of somebody watching thousands of adults pay to become tired.
Around Mile 5, turn right onto Newtownards Road. CS Lewis Square appears on the left, complete with sculptures inspired by The Chronicles of Narnia. That is the Narnia lad, not somebody selling second hand Toyotas from a cabin.
The straightforward section ends here. Turn left onto Holywood Road, then left again onto Park Avenue. Continue through Park Avenue before turning left onto Brandon Parade, right onto Connsbrook Avenue and right again towards Parkgate Avenue and Mersey Street.
By this stage, you may suspect the course measurer was paid per corner. Mile 6 appears during this twisting tour of East Belfast, assuming you have not accidentally joined a queue for somebody’s driveway.
Another right brings you onto the Connswater Greenway, offering a brief spell of waterside calm after the municipal satnav breakdown. Follow it towards Victoria Park and prepare for one complete lap.
Miles 6 to 8: Victoria Park and the Titanic Quarter
Enter Victoria Park and begin an anticlockwise loop. Local lore insists the park was named after Victoria Beckham after she jogged one lap here in wedge heels during a 1997 Spice Girls tour. More reliable history records Ulster stars including Ciara Mageean and Nick Griggs producing remarkable parkrun times on this same course. Their records are safe from most of us.
Mile 7 comes during the park circuit, surrounded by water, greenery and runners discovering that six miles and seven miles are emotionally very different numbers.
Complete the loop and leave by Sam Thompson Bridge before turning left onto Airport Road. Planes may be descending towards Belfast City Airport overhead. Resist the urge to wave. Nobody on board can help you.
At Dee Street Roundabout, turn right onto Sydenham Road and head towards the Titanic Quarter. The surroundings become magnificently industrial, a landscape of steel, concrete and buildings that appear to have been designed during a meeting nobody enjoyed.
An Audi dealership sits beside the route, quietly suggesting that an A6 would complete the remaining miles much faster. Sadly, taking one would create issues with both the results team and the PSNI.
The Harland and Wolff cranes now tower nearby, while Citigroup’s glass headquarters and the Titanic Quarter rise ahead. It feels part maritime cathedral and part Sunday long run fever dream.
Mile 8 arrives along Sydenham Road as you close in on Queen’s Quay and the city centre.
Miles 8 to 10: Bridges, Fish and Belfast City Centre
Continue past the SSE Arena, home of the Belfast Giants and every tribute act that has ever damaged Sweet Caroline. Queen’s Quay carries you towards the Lagan Weir Footbridge, where you turn right and cross the river.
A gust of Lagan air may remind you that September running gear is largely a negotiation between sweating and hypothermia.
On the far side, several pieces of public art compete for attention. The Big Fish normally wins. The Red Boy makes a decent effort. Sammy the Seal watches proceedings with the exhausted expression of somebody who has been asked to attend another council launch.
Queen’s Square follows, with Custom House standing proudly nearby. Continue onto High Street, where Mile 9 arrives and a Lidl attempts to lure you away with pastries. Stay strong. Getting disqualified while holding a bakery bag would be an undignified end to months of training.
Turn left towards Cornmarket and continue through Arthur Street. The Spirit of Belfast sculpture twists above Arthur Square, generally known to locals as the Onion Rings. Public art is meant to provoke discussion. Belfast looked at this one and ordered a side portion.
Turn right onto Chichester Street, with Belfast City Hall soon dominating the view. Queen Victoria stares down from her plinth with royal disapproval. She never ran a half marathon and, judging by the expression, would have reported anyone who did.
Continue towards Wellington Place before turning right onto Queen Street and left onto Castle Street. The restored Primark Bank Buildings stand nearby, having reopened in 2022 after the devastating 2018 fire.
Castle Street becomes Divis Street as the course enters West Belfast. Murals and memorials begin to multiply, recording the area’s political, cultural and social history while you pass Mile 10 making a noise like an accordion falling down stairs.
Miles 10 to 12: Falls Road to the Pub Gauntlet
Continue along the Lower Falls Road. About half a mile later, swing left near Dunville Park and glance towards the Royal Victoria Hospital. It is comforting to know that emergency medical care is close when your hamstrings feel so precarious.
Head back towards the city along Grosvenor Road, with the Westlink roaring below like a badly tuned hairdryer. Mile 11 arrives as Belfast Grand Central Station comes into view. Opened in 2024, it now handles the Dublin to Belfast Enterprise service and the city’s main bus routes. Public transport will suddenly appear like humanity’s finest achievement.
Pass Value Cabs and the multistorey car park before turning right onto Great Victoria Street. The Grand Opera House appears ahead, its ornate exterior looking almost offensively elegant beside a large group of people sweating into their own eyebrows.
The Europa Hotel follows on the right, famous for being described as Europe’s most bombed hotel. Your legs may feel equally battered, although the Europa has had more sympathetic restoration work.
Turn left onto Bruce Street and pass the Vita student accommodation. Yes, that is a hot tub on the roof. No, you cannot abandon the race and climb into it. Security staff tend to be very narrow minded about these things.
Turn right onto Dublin Road, beginning Belfast’s pub and takeaway gauntlet. The aromas are cruel, the pavements are long and several people outside hotels may still be negotiating with Saturday night.
Mile 12 arrives around this stretch. One mile remains, give or take the extra tenth race organisers include because happiness made them nervous.
Miles 12 to 13.1: Botanic, the Holylands and the Finish
Continue through Shaftesbury Square and onto Botanic Avenue, a full cosmopolitan buffet of Mediterranean cafés, Asian kitchens, coffee shops and takeaways. Every smell will be magnificent. Your stomach will immediately remember that breakfast was several poor decisions ago.
Turn left onto University Street, skirting the edge of the Holylands. During term time, this area serves as a nightly documentary about the unsurprising consequences of cheap booze, poor soundproofing and giving nineteen year olds a wheelie bin.
Turn right onto the Lower Ormeau Road, the less pretentious sibling of the Upper Ormeau. It is friendlier, cheaper and far less likely to explain sourdough to you without being asked.
Cross the Lagan over Ormeau Bridge for the fourth and final time, then turn left onto Ormeau Embankment. No frequent traveller points are awarded. The finish lies ahead along one final straight beside the river.
The crowd noise grows, the finish gantry comes into view and just one final push is required.
Cross the line with 13.1 miles of bridges, murals, parks, industrial roads and car dealerships behind you. Medal in one hand, banana in the other. Nothing says athletic achievement like being rewarded with one item from a child’s lunchbox.
That’s a Wrap
That is every mile covered for the 2026 Belfast City Half Marathon. The course takes in all four areas of Belfast, crosses the Lagan four times and offers enough landmarks to distract you from your lack of preparation.
Best of luck to everyone running on Sunday. May your pace hold, your stomach cooperate and your official photograph bear only a passing resemblance to a hostage video.
Go on and earn that medal. The fry and Guinness can handle the recovery work afterwards.
