Ok, so how bad can it be? After all, you're running in paradise, right? Well... not exactly. I've run two Honolulu Marathons so far, and must say that 2007 will be my last.

I love vacationing in Hawaii and love experiencing the cosmopolitan culture, the food, and the lifestyle, but not the marathon.

Here's why:
1. You MUST use a corral system for that many runners - either the runners don't understand English to know where their pace group is or they don't care. But because of this you are constantly dodging slower runners. I'm not saying that I'm Lightning McQueen here, but I'm trying to run a 9-minute-mile pace and am dodging people (running 4 across) running a 12-minute-mile pace. I lined up near the light post that read "4 to 5 hours." I dodged slower people for at least 4 miles.

2. Turn UP the sound system or place more speakers along Ala Moana Boulevard. You can't hear the announcer at the starting line, you can't hear the national anthem play and you can't hear the gun go off. It's just too loud among the masses. It would be great if the race officials could either turn it up, or add some speakers.

3. Use better pace signs. The current method the Honolulu Marathon uses is to have pacers wearing bibs on their backs with the finish time. (I don't recall seeing actual signs carried by the pacers.) This makes it hard to see unless you've lined up near the right pacer, not just lining up near a sign that generically says "4 to 5 HOURS" for goodness' sake.

4. Start later in the morning. After all, the marathon has permits with the city to keep the streets closed for the marathon for as long as the runners/walkers take to complete the course, so can they start the race at 6 or 7? That way you can see China Town, Waikiki Beach and other things as you're running past them.

5. The out-and-back course isn't scenic and is boring. While on the highway portion of the marathon course, you're at mile 11 and you're seeing runners coming back and they're at mile 18. It makes for a boring course (at least that portion of the course is boring) and is hard to keep going when you know that 7 miles later, you'll STILL be on that same stretch of highway.

6. The finish line support is terrible. I'm not talking about the fecal-infested mud; I'm talking about the FOOD. WHY am I paying $125 for a marathon (even when there is not a "commemorative chip" given out anymore) when there is no runner support at the end? You have clothing pickup, t-shirt/medal pickup, and finisher's photos at the end, but if you're not with a Japanese-supported tour company, all you get is an apple. There was a cookie? Gee, I missed the cookie.

7. Clean up the animal feces at the finish line. No, you can't control the torrential rain that occurred that morning, but race officials CAN control the feces left behind by the zoo animals that share the same park. Pick it up for God's sake! Thirty-thousand people at the finish line after a heavy rain only made it worse, and with open blisters on my feet from running in wet socks/shoes, I wasn't thrilled about having bacteria-infested mud all over me. If it were just mud, it wouldn't be a big deal. But it wasn't just mud - there was crap in it too.

8. RFID tag equipment failed - though I think they got my and my husband's time correct.

Here are some reasons to run it:
1. It's Honolulu. You get a great fireworks display at the start, run past the Duke Kahanamoku statue on Waikiki (only it's too dark to see it), run around Diamond Head, run through Hawaii Kai past the building where Hawaii 5-0 was filmed, and run through Kapiolani Park at the finish (which is a beautiful park).

2. They served Gatorade this year. Last year, this terrible stuff called Amino-Value or Amino-Vital (I don't remember which) was served and it was baaaaad. If you've never had the pleasure of tasting it, it's like drinking stale alcohol. You'll burp that taste for the rest of the marathon. Last year, the Amino-Vital was so bad that I wasn't drinking it as often as I should have, which only caused me more problems. So I was glad that they had Gatorade.

3. The volunteers are the best. Let's face it: with every marathon, the volunteers make it possible, and this marathon has thousands of them. Without their efforts, this marathon wouldn't exist. They really do a good job.

4. Water stops well-stocked. Nope, no "Chicago Marathon"-esque problems here! There was plenty of water and Gatorade at all water stops.

Perhaps it's a marathon you should run at least once, but we'll choose to run another somewhere else.

I actually like this course, and the weather this year couldn't be helped. A few comments:

The shuttles to the start were so well organized! Stay near the finish not the start. This also makes the rather lame finisher's area a non-issue.
The manholes in downtown need to be marked! If it is raining, they are slippery as heck.
The volunteers were awesome!
There is no age limit. I was astonished to see young children being dragged along the course.

First off, to clarify things mentioned by others:
*Yes, the shirt was indeed a tech tee, and yes, it was a horrible yellow color.
*Finisher's certificates, if they were not picked up, are to be mailed in February.
*You could wear the medal on the shell lei. Ya know the way you attach an airline luggage tag to your bags (think about it....)? You could do that, but they could have done something more obvious.
*For everyone's complaints in the past, they served Gatorade, not Amino Vital, at aid stations this year, even though the latter is now available in the US.
*The finish area was indeed a swamp and smelled like the adjacent zoo. Not too much I guess could have been done to prevent that.

I read all the reviews here prior to entering, so it pretty much lived up to my expectations. Even though I live in the Bay Area, my husband is from Honolulu and his parents live there, so I had a mobile support crew and wasn't subjected to the whole transit afterwards problem. When we arrived at 4:15 that morning, we could park in the Ala Mo'ana Center right by the start area. I also knew of the pathetic post-race food, so I had family waiting with real food afterwards anyway.

I entered this race to have a fun time and enjoy myself, which is the point of running to me, and I did. No PRs for me; just warm weather and 6-hour jog with 28,000 of my closest running friends.

I feel for the folks who were screwed by the faulty timing system, though.

Anyway, the corral start system would have indeed been nice. I had to wait until about 20 minutes to actually cross the start line as I was honest, and by that time they were letting race day walk people start, which was NOT cool. I had to run through some massive, ankle-deep puddles early on because of the walkers and got some resulting nasty blisters.

Loved the Japanese and their enthusiasm (and costumes and cute shirts). Slightly related, I loved that with all the Asian participants there were more than enough smaller-sized finisher shirts. Being a slow runner, I have plenty of L and XL shirts from events hiding in my closet because they ran out of the small that I requested earlier in the race.

The aid stations were well stocked with water and drink by enthusiastic volunteers. I agree that it wouldn't be that hard to get some bananas or persuade the fine folks at GU or Clif Bar to donate or offer a deep discount on 50,000 energy gels.

If I didn't know about it beforehand, I would have been outraged at the apple and cookie refreshments. Actually, I'm still not pleased. Common, mini Clif Bars or Luna Bars? Something with protein is needed for muscle repair. (I had a post-race tofu burger at Zippy's!)

I enjoyed myself (except the blisters!). If we visit family at that time next year, I would definitely do it again.

This was my 5th marathon and my first in Honolulu. The marathon started at 0500 hours and I did not like running in the dark for 2 hours... not to mention the rain. The course was not that great and most of the spectators were from Japan and only cheered the Japanese runners. After running 26.2 miles, the only free food provided to finishers were red apples and cookies. There were several "private" tents with plenty of refreshments for "Japanese only." I understand the marathon caters to the Japanese because they provide a boost to the economy, but I felt discriminated against. I will continue to run marathons in the mainland, where every runner is treated equally.

Starting line is chaotic at best. Way too many people ignoring race etiquette, walkers at the start of the line, walking in the middle of the roadway (oh and on both left and right sides as well) sometimes 4-5 people across and no room to squeeze through. Be prepared to break your stride lots, particularly going up Diamond Head (which really isn't much of a hill at all but is full of walkers!!). I disagree with some of the previous comments in that I was never able to break free of the congestion and always found myself weaving and darting around those with a much slower pace. Aid stations were particularly frustrating in that regard.

A plus side: the people who came out to line the course with cheers (some of them had to endure a soaking rain) and the volunteers. The volunteers were all awesome.

Really pathetic "grab bag" at the race expo. Considering the size of this marathon, the free loot (or total lack thereof) was very disappointing.

PROS
-Fireworks at the start were great.
-I've read complaints about the finisher's shirt and the medal, but I actually thought they were really good. I guess it's just a matter of opinion.
-Plenty of course support during the marathon.
-The Legends 5K on Thursday was a great relaxing way to meet other runners and have an easy run as well.
-The pasta dinner was the best I've ever been to.

CONS
-For a race with 28,000 runners, there must be a corral system. I lined up according to my expected finishing time and spent the first 5 miles of the race weaving past slow runners and even some walkers, how frustrating! For a race of this size, please use corrals!
-They don't mail you a finisher's certificate or results booklet; you have to pick it up the day after the race. Unfortunately, my wife and I had to leave the next day, so we couldn't pick them up. So for a $125 entry fee, the Honolulu Marathon won't even mail these items to me; again, how frustrating!
-They don't allow race-day clothing drop-off; you must do it the day before the race. Again, this is very frustrating because I like to wear a set of sweatpants and sweatshirt to keep warm before the race. At every other marathon I've been to, I take them off about an hour or so before the race and drop them off at clothing check-in. I couldn't do that in Honolulu and just had to leave them on the side of the street.
-My final con isn't really that big of a deal, but it would have been nice if they played some music at the start line before the beginning of the marathon. I got to the start at about 2:30 a.m. and waited for over 2 hours before the race started. Some music being played over the loudspeakers would have helped pass the time instead of sitting in silence.

Overall, it is a good race and I would recommend it to others, but there are some things the organizers need to take care of before it can become a great marathon.

Many before have already mentioned these in the past on this website that the Honolulu Marathon organizers need to fix some of its persistently problematic issues. Let me reiterate.

The start:

1. Please separate the walkers from the runners. Sure, after 5 to 6 miles in the race, you can find your pace group, but early on I can easily see people tripping on other people and fall. I am sure it's already happened many times, but it's only matter of time runners collide into walkers and cause some serious injury. That would be a major medico-legal issue for the organizers.

2. Maybe a wave start according to pace group might be an option, like at the NYC Marathon.

3. The downtown roads need to be fixed. I just wonder how many ankle sprains there were this year because of the bad roads complicated by puddles of water.


During the race:

4. Please get some mile markers that people can actually see while they are huffing and puffing. Black -colored mile- or KM-markers just don't cut it. Make it orange or neon green so they attract eyes. Have an elementary schools in Hawaii make a project out of it.


The finish line:

5. Is it that difficult to get some bananas at the finish line?

6. Tents at Kapiolani Park set up by Japanese tour companies and sponsors only catering to Japanese are extremely disheartening. They either need to do this somewhere else or make it open to American runners. Where is the runner camaraderie? The running community shouldn't accept this. It shouldn't exclude or include groups of people based on which tour operator you used. This is not anti-Japanese. In fact, I love the huge groups of Japanese runners storming Waikiki and those Japanese cheers that get you through the race. We should all share the glory of finishing the marathon together no matter where you come from.

7. I couldn't believe the bus wanted two-dollar fare for every finisher to get back to hotels. For the money all the runners spend to get to Hawaii/food/lodging, the small chump change is not a big deal for me, but is it a big deal to the state of Hawaii and the organizers? Is nickeling and diming from all the tourists the modus operandi for the state of Hawaii? Especially when the entrance fee is already so high...

It is not so strange that Japanese runners outnumber American counterparts when you consider all this. So many Americans want to come here, if you just make it possible. Show us some hospitality. The running community is an ultra nice group of people, and most of us are pretty well off and want to be shown true hospitality.


Even though I've listed out many criticisms above, I do have to say that Hawaii is a beautiful place and the Honolulu Marathon is one heck of an experience. Now if they can improve it a little bit...

When my wife saw the medal she said, "Oh, that's a nice key chain." Cheap and insubstantial. This year the t-shirt was made of tech fabric, but was an ugly yellow color.... Why is it so difficult to design a useful AND attractive marathon shirt? Heavy rain spoiled the post-race picnic and turned Kapiolani Park into a mud puddle. But overall, great organization and support. Wish the organizers had sprung for a timing system that worked, though....

I have run the Honolulu Marathon 24 times. I have been collecting the distinctive one time micro timing chips. This year's flimsy paper timing device was very cheap-looking and definitely not one for saving. Also, the lack of food at the end is a big letdown. For the price of this race, providing only 2 cookies and an apple is very cheap. The volunteers are great, but having no Gu or bananas on the course isn't so helpful.

Torrential downpour of rain throughout the entire race! Every bit of clothing was soaked. Starting line was very unorganized with people near the front walking! I had to do some serious weaving in and out of the pack to get clear running room.

Roadside support and aid stations were great, but with 66% of the runners being Japanese, it was very difficult to comprehend their motivation messages.

Newly designed timing chips were inaccurate and malfunctioned during the checkpoints, as evidenced in the checking the results page. A friend of mine finished in approximately 5 hours and 55 minutes, but was officially clocked at 4:59! Another friend has yet to receive her time (even after waiting three days). To make matters worse, one woman told me she qualified for Boston, but with the timing chip controversy, would it be accepted?

The finish line area was a madhouse with no firm direction of where to go to find things. Many signs were in Japanese as well as many tents catered exclusively to Japanese runners. The rest of the field was stuck trying to find their "key chain" medal and finisher t-shirt. Rest of the pack finishers were treated to a sumptuous buffet of one apple and two rock-hard cookies (hardly proper recovery food).

I would not recommend this marathon at all!