Junichiro Sageshima's Staging Area

This was a small town local race. Positives: weather was nice, had pacers, green belt was easy to run, volunteers at water stations. Negatives: not enough potties creating a long line before the race, gravel road around the Wildhorse was rough, the second street was not closed – almost hit by a bus, shorter than Half distance (20K by my Garmin and Stryd).

Due to COVID, this race was postponed to October, but it still had nice wine country scenery. From the city center of Solving the first half was steady uphill, but nothing too steep. After the relay transition point at Los Olivos, a corkscrewed up hill killed my legs. The second half was steady downhill, except for the last small up hill before the goal.

Although it was my first marathon, I ran a couple of half marathons before this and found that this race was the most disorganized one.

The race starts at Ala Moana Park and finishes at Kapiolani Park. There was Bus Service from the goal to the start, but the line was very long and we almost missed the start time.

There was no clothing check-in at the start area on Race Day – it was only on the day before from 10 am to 5 pm at Kapiolani.

At Ala Moana, portable restrooms were also mess. So many people lined up and the area was too dark to see anything inside the toilet.

It was instructed to stage in the corresponding banner area designated by bib color (by estimated goal time), but many were not following the rule. In fact, the staging area was so crowded, it was almost impossible to move from the entrance to the appropriate banner area.

There were no time pacers.

The first 10 K was from Waikiki to Downtown, before dawn. I saw some Christmas illuminations, but nothing was impressive. Since both Marathon and 10 K start from the same place at the same time (and as mentioned above slow runners and “walkers” were at up-front), the course was very crowded by runners/walkers of different pace.

The second 10K around Diamond Head was not so much the challenge, but the following 15 K on the highway was very long – I saw many people walking here. The last 5 K again around Diamond Head was supper challenging due to hill and hot and humid weather; the area was supposed to be with superb scenery, but I could not enjoy it very much.

Aid stations were plenty (16 stations) with water, Gatorade, and occasional gels, but I still got dehydrated.

The finish area was not organized either. Although I enjoyed Malasadas and banana, not much help was provided. It was not easy to find the finisher’s T-shirt distribution tent. Probably, there was enough support for Japanese runners/walkers who attended the race through private tours, but I felt official support from the organizer was minimal.

The race starts and finishes at William Land Park, which is a large park and we had a difficulty in finding a booth to get our bibs. Race is well organized with enough aid stations. Scenery was not great first half, but after Tower Bridge, the narrow path along the river was beautiful. You’ll enjoy a cowbell medal (to cheer other runners) and refreshment (and beer) after the race.