The waiting is almost over for the 2025 SPAR Craic 10k as on Monday, a record crowd will take over the streets of Belfast to begin the St Patrick's Day festivities in fine style.
From City Hall to Ormeau Park and all between, Belfast will be a sea of green as over 5000 take on the course in an event that is now a central feature of the March 17 celebrations.
All of the additional places on the start line have now been snapped up, so all that is left to do is make the final preparations as the hours count down towards 9am on Monday.
Excitement is building and Fáilte Feirste Thiar's Heritage Development Manager, Eimear Hargey says the runners will be given a huge céad míle fáilte in the west of the city.
“We are delighted to partner with SPAR Craic 10k which has grown enormously over the past number of years to be the leading 10k run across the island," said Eimear.
"Runners have the opportunity to see some of the fantastic highlights of West Belfast. Here at Áras Uí Chonghaile we look forward to welcoming runners and their families to uncover the hidden heritage that was James Connolly's time in Belfast in the wonderful city of Belfast.”
Kevin Gamble, Director, Féile an Phobail added: "Féile an Phobail is delighted to once again partner with the SPAR Craic 10k, particularly as it takes place alongside our Féile an Earraigh Spring Festival, with thousands of runners taking to the streets of Belfast and into West Belfast and bringing colour, excitement and energy to St Patrick’s Day here in the city."
Founded in 2015 and shining a light on our common heritage, the SPAR Craic 10k In Belfast is now a staple of the St Patrick’s Day festivities, as traditional as Irish stew and shamrock.
An inclusive, fun event which attracts all levels of runners from across the island and beyond, SPAR Craic 10k is Belfast’s premier urban run. As we take to the road again, we issue the warm, Irish welcome of ‘céad míle fáilte — come along for the Craic’.
When we say we want to make the SPAR Craic 10K Ireland’s greenest urban run, we’re not (just) talking about green tutus and green wigs — or even our famous green t-shirts.
Rather our focus is firmly on making the SPAR Craic the country’s most sustainable – greenest, to me and you – 10K.
You will see the changes introduced over the coming years to reduce our carbon footprint, we hope to eventually phase out plastics and use only recyclable materials and organic foods.
The first change you will notice in 2025 is the introduction of wooden medals. We love the metal medals from China too but transporting materials halfway around the world which eventually will find their way to landfill is no longer acceptable.
We are also ending the distribution of thousands of branded pens, keyrings etc which, while useful for promoting sponsor brands, ultimately end up in wastebins.
We hope our regular patrons will bear with us as we introduce these green enhancements over the coming period and continue to make the SPAR Craic 10K Ireland’s greatest and greenest urban run.
