Race Reports

Rob Hall : Honolulu Marathon
December 14, 2008

The Honolulu marathon has to have one of the highest finishing percentages for a major marathon with 20,054 finishers out of 20,302 starters for the December 14th, 2008 race.  One incentive to finish is that you actually have to finish for the t-shirt.  Another reason to finish is that they do not close the course till the last person is done.  The last person was Fujio Kaneko at 15:01:50.  My goal was to finish and mark off another state.  I now have just 38 to go till 50.

It was a long flight to Honolulu and I stayed there for 8 days before the race.  I stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village before the race and it was easy to walk to the start and finish from there.  It was also close to the expo and packet pick-up.

It rained the first half and was dark with the sunrise about 2 hours after the 5 AM start.  The sun came out from behind the clouds for the second half and it got hot and humid.  Every day was a low around 72 and a high around 84, and this included the marathon.  The weather was predicted to be cloudy with rain all day, so I did not put on any sunscreen.  I got burnt when the sun came out as the sun is stronger in Hawaii.  My pace went down as the heat went up and I started to hunt for shade along the course.

The course has some great views once you get out of the downtown area.  One of the best sites along the course was the keg of beer just after mile 24.  It was about half way up the only real hill on the course as you cross Diamond Head crater.  There was a group of residence with a frosty beverage just waiting for me.  We talked and I thanked them for the beer.  Besides the cool refreshment it was also needed carbs as the race did not supply any food.  The young fellow suggested I filler up for the road and I topped the 16oz cup off.  I would not suggest doing this for most runners, but my goal was to have fun and finish strong enough to manage the flight back the next day.

I got a shell lei after crossing the finish line and started the journey to find the medal.  I first found the tent with the cookies as I needed something to eat.  The ground had become a mud pit from the rain and people.  I passed all the tents for the Japanese tour groups (over half the runners are from Japan) on the way to the back.  The tent for the medal and t-shirt was as far away from the hotel as I could get in the finisher complex, but I was soon on my way out and down Waikiki to find the hotel.  It was not long before I was clean and sitting out on the beach.  Now that is the way to celebrate finishing a marathon in December.

I had a chance to go by the Nike Town store in Waikiki before the flight out.  I was able to get a free photo for finishers and some great deals on the race clothing.  They had all the marathon gear at 40% off the next day.  I was not really planning on getting anything and had skipped the store at the expo, but who could pass up the 40% off sale.  The flight back the day after was very long, and I was glad that I had not pushed it.