Kauai Marathon - Race Reviews

In 1980, I was a 20-year-old musician touring the planet, and I can't believe I ever left Kaui behind. But the memory of the Kaui Marathon haunts me still. THE BEST!!!!!

Really good race!

The most beautiful marathon I´ve ever run. Magnificent scenery, just awesome, I have no words to describe it!

Let's get this out of the way first. This is NOT a PR course; nor should it be. As mentioned by the others, it is run on an old cane road, which will leave your shoes stained with real Hawaiian red dirt. There is a real steep hill at 2.5. The run down is a blast but you need to watch your foot falls. The run up ain't so fun. The small organization should get a lot of credit for pulling this off. After the run was over I viewed it as a great training run -- very pretty course with challenging terrain but well-personed water stops every few miles.

If you're the minimalist runner who is comfortable with challenging courses, basic amenities, but plenty of heart and spirit from the organizers, then this is the right race for you. This was the first official marathon on this Hawaian island. It was announced as being partly an off-road course that turned out to be entirely on lava dirt trails through mainly sugar cane fields and coffee plantations overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The course is in its entirety on private land, so don't expect any spectators to cheer you up. But most likely you won't need that anyway as you'll be so occupied with soaking up the beauty of the landscape you're cruising thru that time will be flying, barely comparable to any other long run. The many hills and uneven surface are demanding though, and so is the heat. However, if you stick to a slightly slower than usual pace (add 20 to 30 minutes to your PR) and take in enough fluids (that is you really should drink something at every water station) then you'll be fine in finishing without problems (and you will not even hit the so-called 'wall'). This marathon must also be a perfect training run for everyone preparing for Badwater or other similar ultras. Apparentely the marathon was organized by only a few running devotees, all the more everything worked out without a problem. But for the future be aware that the slots for the run are pretty limited, and this was not indicated on their website at all. As a consequence, the website was brought down out of a sudden the night before I finally went to register online. Fortunately the race director still let me register by mail, which I appreciated a lot as you can imagine. It was my second marathon overall and a great experience rounding up a terrific vacation on the island. And in addition, when do you ever get again a chance to be amongst the first 20 finishers with a time slightly over four hours?!

This race is an out and back 6.55 mi down an old cane road through a coffee plantation and beautiful sea and mountain vistas.The marathon is x2 on this course. There is a serious hill on mi 2.5 which you get the fun of running twice on the marathon. Not a PR run with starting temp at 72 and humid but worth a look.

Very much enjoyed running the tough, hilly, hot, first annual Kauai Half Marathon. Beautiful all natural rural course - entirely on a red dirt road along coffee fields w. ocean and mnt views. Small field of runners (160+ total). Scenic fun run. Note: Full marathon was the same course of the half twice - the half took you out to a point and back.

Breathtaking! Not sure if it was from the hills or the scenery! This was one of the most difficult courses I have run, but the views (and smells) were amazing. Great organization for a first time race. I am looking forward to next year already.