Thousands of competitors take part in Belfast Marathon

THOUSANDS of runners are pounding the streets of Belfast city centre today for the annual Belfast Marathon.

More than 17,500 competitors people are taking part in the various categories, including the full marathon as well as a team relay, eight-mile walk, wheelchair race and fun run.

Watch: Belfast Marathon 

The race began at Belfast City Hall and finishes at Ormeau Park, taking in parts of north, south, east and west of the city along the way.

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Competitors of all ages and abilities are participating in the event, which is in its 35th year, and a number are in fancy dress.

Among those running today was Emma Toner from Crumlin, who was raising funds for the Simon Community.

"I was part of a relay from Galgorm Resort and Spa and we are running for the Simon Community, which is our official charity this year," she said.

"It went well, I think I'd done good enough training which helped me. It kind of made me want to do a full marathon now, but we'll see."

A team of around 80 runners were also competing to raise funds for the Children's Heartbeat Trust, which supports families of children with heart disease in Northern Ireland.

Many participants were running in memory of Ross Maxwell from north Belfast, who died in November 2014 aged just 14 months.

The little boy was born with a number of health complications and had to undergo major surgery when he was just three days old.

Teams of supporters from the trust lined the streets to cheer the participants on, which included members of the little boy's family.

Alison Crawford, who was among those on the sideline at Donegall Quay, said: "We have a large group of runners, about 80 or so, all running for the Children's Heartbeat Trust.

"They're running in memory of Ross, including his Daddy, so we are all here to support them.

"This is our biggest fundraiser every year, it's the only way we can get funds and keep going if we do it ourselves."

Runa Behr and Lisa Jung from Munich were also among the crowds shouting support for the runners.

The two women, who were in Belfast on a weekend city break, had made posters for their two friends who were running the full marathon.

"Our two friends are living here on an exchange programme and are into running, so signed up to run the Belfast Marathon," Ms Jung said.

"They're run the Berlin Marathon before too and have been training for the past four months."

A team of 32 runners and walkers from the Irish News are taking part today in memory of colleague and friend Joanne Priest and to raise money for Cancer Research UK.