Honolulu Marathon??

[DeazyRunner]

Hi Fellow Runners-
Has anyone out there ever run the Honolulu Marathon?
I am signed up for this year's Dec 13 race, got my trip booked and all
fired up for it!
Any tips or wisdom to share?
Thanks,
Darin

[Desiree Zicko]

Hi Darin,

I ran Honolulu in 2007, flying in from east coast. If you can, I'd advise leaving a couple of days (think I had 3 full days) to get acclimated. I sadly picked up a case of 24-hr food poisoning upon arrival, so managed to be sick and recoop in time for the VERY EARLY wake up call you'll need, unless you're staying right at the starting line. I found that whole process - getting up at 3:30am to get to start -- more stressful than the marathon itself. We stayed at a hotel near the finish, Kapiolani Park, and although it was a pain to get up so early, I'm happy we were near our hotel at the end.

 

Despite all the warnings, I didn't find the climb up Diamond Head on the way out or back to be terribly challenging, all things being equal. I've run Cape Cod too, and feel that's a more challenging course. The tough thing about the Diamond Head climb on the way out is that the road is narrow and so at that point, around 10K, you will probably be all jammed up, possibly running more slowly than you'd like.

 

On the way back, however, the crowd support really kicks in. The volunteers throughout are wonderful and the aid stations were well supplied with water, sports drink (I think), and sponges.

 

As you may know, many many runners from Japan fly in for this marathon giving the event a very international feel. My least favorite part of this event was the finish. It may have changed, but I feel that the organizers were very skimpy on the post-run refreshments. I managed to get an apple, a cookie and some juice. The Japanese runners seem to come over with large clubs or groups who have big tents serving food, etc., but of course, it's members only.

 

2007 was the year of the gi-normous rainstorm that drenched Honolulu for 2 days before and the morning of the marathon. I was drenched by downpours three times before starting - my fiance was wringing his socks out before the start. The timing bands/chip things malfunctioned terribly; and the finish area was a muddy swamp. You can't control mother nature, however, and although the race organizers might have been able to do things differently to alleviate some of the mess at the end, for us, it was still a good event. I didn't even have a blister after all that rain (hello, synthetic socks).

 

December is a rainy month, though, so you may want to keep a disposable poncho around if you don't like to be damp at the start of a race.

 

The middle section of the marathon is quite dull - you run some long miles out and back on the highway - the fun parts are definitely the beginning and the end. Having said ALL that, I would do this again in a heartbeat -- I hope you have a great time in Hawaii and best of luck on the marathon!

 

-D

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