Amsterdam Marathon 2025 (19th Oct)

The 50th edition of the Amsterdam Marathon took place on Sunday morning 19th October. Starting and finishing in the Olympic Stadium, which holds a special place in Irish Olympic history, given Dr. Pat O’Callaghan won the first gold medal for Ireland at the 2028 Games in Amsterdam, our own Brendan Rice was one of over 25,000 runners taking part. In sunny conditions with a light breeze the temperatures remained in the mid-teens throughout the race. Noted to be a relatively flat course which took athletes through much of the historic sites of the city and its suburbs, Brendan started strongly running the early stages a little ahead of target. He crossed the 10k mark in a fine 50:35, before having to ease back his pace. He went through the halfway point in 1:49:29 but found it necessary to ease off further from 30k as the heat and fall off from the gentle breeze began to impact all the runners. Brendan was still delighted to re-enter the Olympic Stadium and take his final lap to the finish line in a time of 3:55:24, a big 12 minute improvement on his previous best for the distance [MO’S].