Amsterdam Marathon 2024 (20th October)

Amsterdam Marathon

The 48th edition of the TCS Amsterdam Marathon took on Sunday morning 20th October. Highlights of the course include the start and finish in the Olympic Stadium, the passage through the Rijksmuseum and along the Heineken Experience, stretches along the Amstel and the passage through the beautiful Vondelpark. A flat course that winds around the city, it attracts runners from all over the globe. Weather conditions were reasonable with a largely dry morning except for some light rain from time to time, and a 32kph wind, which proved tricky on the open stretches, especially along the section by the Amstel River.

Three Mullingar Harriers athletes made the weekend journey, and each was very pleased with their fine controlled running, matching their training programme and pre-race target times. First home of the trio was Mary Stuart. Mary posted a great time of 3 hours 14 minutes 21 seconds. Joan Hickson had targeted a sub-3 hour 50 minutes and her steady pace paid dividends, as she had that extra bit in the tank for the last 5k to come home in a time of 3 hours 48 minutes 33 seconds. Brendan Rice did not have the opportunity to take part in some of the group training sessions but was pleased to come home in 4 hours 7 minutes 34 seconds.

A highlight for all 3 was the start and finish in the Olympic Stadium. Not lost either on all of them is that this was the venue that saw Ireland win its first Olympic Gold medal with the success of Dr Pat O’Callaghan in the 1928 Games. All three stated that the event was excellently organised and that the only difficulty was the design of the water cups that required athletes to almost have to stop to properly take on fluid [MO’S].