Michelle Shappee's Staging Area

Do yourself a favor and skip this one for Hawaii. First, it’s home to the world’s least funny race director. Expect daily emails with jokes that are off putting at best, ridiculously uninformative and confusing at worst.

The entire course is along a highway with zero closures, and the swag looks like it was designed on software from the first computer ever made. Trust me, this would be unbelievably disappointing as a 50th state – even with the extra medal. Choose ANY other race in Hawaii.

This was a destination run for us, and we were very excited to see beautiful scenery (which was great even on a rainy day). That’s about where the pros end.

They reused the medals from the 2020 race, which was disappointing. We’re sure this was due to the 2020 race being cancelled, but the medals are usually beautiful (judging by photos of previous medals) and were highly underwhelming this time. Other than the mediocre swag, the course was not well organized. The roads weren’t closed to cars, so we had cars speeding by and almost hitting us multiple times. We started just running in the grass to avoid them altogether.

ONE port-a-potty on the whole course around mile 4. So if you had to use the restroom for about 9 miles of a 13 mile course, too bad! Also, don’t run without a watch, because they don’t have any mile markers.

I’ve done this race a couple of times, and it never disappoints. First, it will have some of the best spectators you’ll ever experience. They never fail to disappoint with their signs and energy.

Race-wise, everything from beginning to end is so well organized. The expo, the course, the finish – ALL fantastic. Next, the swag is amazing. Both a participant and a finisher’s shirt, and the medal is always so pretty and top notch. It’s also so meaningful to be running in the memory of those that died in the bombing.

I’ve done the half and full, and both were fantastic. The monkey hill with all the bananas is a favorite!