Big Island International Marathon
Hilo, HI
- Marathon, Marathon Relay, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K, 2 Miler
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
The annual Big Island International Marathon runs along the old coast of the Big Island. As you run you will see surfers, water falls, oceanfront and rain forests. This year we will be starting and finishing each run at the new host hotel, The Hilo Hawaiian. This way you can … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Mar 15):
| 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | |
| H (°F) | 78 | 80 | 74 | 84 | 81 |
| L (°F) | 73 | 50 | 67 | 67 | 69 |
Find Nearby Lodging (hotel, rental, etc.):
Do Not Recommend This Race
Hopeful for an awesome race experience in Hawaii, but didn't happen. This course is on busy highways with little to no shoulder. Often sloping when they were there. Lots of … MORE
Hopeful for an awesome race experience in Hawaii, but didn’t happen. This course is on busy highways with little to no shoulder. Often sloping when they were there. Lots of traffic pulling in and backing out along roadway. No police on course at all directing traffic. Dangerous! Very few volunteers directing runners where to go. Signage was awful, hardly any and often pointing wrong way. Aid stations were the only positive out there! Could have definitely had pickle juice as many runners were suffering with cramps. Coming into finish, had to hop a curb and run thru mud with rocks and roots everywhere! Why? No medical at the finish line!! ?? Sparse post race food. Only drinks were water and watered down gatorade. No one to meet you with your medal at the finish line. Race director-hmmm, what to say??
Would NOT Recommend
I have done 33 full marathons all over the US from large to small, and this race ranks at the very bottom for me. The Good: -Friendly and helpful aid … MORE
I have done 33 full marathons all over the US from large to small, and this race ranks at the very bottom for me.
The Good:
-Friendly and helpful aid station volunteers
-Beautiful scenery along parts of the course
-The finish line announcer was enthusiastic and called each person across by name and state.
The Bad:
-This race was unsafe. Much of it was along a narrow, sloping shoulder on a busy highway. There was no traffic control at any intersections and no police presence along the route (except for the officer who angrily screamed at me to get out of the road as I was passing other runners). The second out and back section went past a park along the beach with LOTS of traffic – vehicles and large tour busses backing out or pulling into parking spaces, oblivious to the runners.
-The course was not well-marked. Only some of the turns had very small signs, and there were no volunteers directing runners where to go.
-I had a minor medical issue, and there was no medical assistance available at the finish.
-The post-race food consisted of cookies, chips, fruit, and bread. Nothing hot and nothing to drink besides water and watered-down Gatorade.
-The medals were tiny and not unique to each distance. If you did the 5K, your medal said “Marathon” in big writing with 5K/10K very small underneath. Same for the half and full.
-This was the most expensive marathon I have ever entered at almost $200. Not sure where that money went?
-The race started about 5 minutes late.
-The finish line required you to jump a curb and run across a bunch of tree roots (major trip hazard) and muddy grass.
-Suffocating humidity (Coming from the mainland US, it’s very difficult to be properly acclimated to this in mid-March.)
-Extremely hilly (some may see that as a plus?)
The Ugly:
-The race director! Very rude, arrogant, and unwilling to make any accommodations to runners who had difficulty getting to the race site due to a historic storm event taking place on the islands in the days leading up to the race.
Rainy unspectacular race!
Big Island International Marathon is a small race which takes place in Hilo on Big Island Hawaii. The expo on Saturday was better than expected with quite a few merchandise … MORE
Big Island International Marathon is a small race which takes place in Hilo on Big Island Hawaii. The expo on Saturday was better than expected with quite a few merchandise to buy! The race was much smaller than expected. Due to the catastrophic weather situation on the island only half of the registered runners took part in the race. Start was in a parking garage of a hotel which was strange but ok. The start of the marathon runners was the first at 6am. It was a bit delayed and it was not clear for all runners that it was the start of the full marathon. I saw several half marathon runners starting with the 42k runners. Official start of the half marathon was 6:15am. The course takes runners to Hilo and all the way up north with some scenic views. Round about 9,5k runners make a U-turn and run all the way back. At the end it got tricky as I didn’t know where to run to as there were absolutely no signs and no people to ask. The finish in the garden of the hotel was good even though it was quite muddy due to the heavy rain. Runners got water and iso drinks along the course. One station was self service which I skipped as I didn’t want to stop…
Just say no
This was my 64th marathon overall and my 50th state. The only reason I chose this race was because it was the time that worked best for my mother-in-law to … MORE
This was my 64th marathon overall and my 50th state. The only reason I chose this race was because it was the time that worked best for my mother-in-law to watch the kids. Bad reason. I should have waited another year and run ANY other race in Hawaii. This was by far the worst race I have ever run!!!
It was one of the more expensive races I have done. I have no idea where they spent the money. This was a completely open course. There were two out-and-backs so we were running in both directions on a small shoulder next to a busy two-lane highway with cars traveling fast. The roads were wet (I can’t blame the race organizers for the weather, but it rained the first half. But perhaps it is worth noting that this is the wet side of that island so maybe it is normal to run this race in rainy conditions.). I am shocked someone wasn’t accidentally jostled into the traffic.
There were ZERO mile markers the entire way. I have never experienced that. There were also very few directional signs. I hesitated to pass other runners, worried I wouldn’t know which way to go.
The Big Island is beautiful. Hilo is not. And we took the not so scenic route past junkyards, car dealerships, the port and the airport. The first half is predominantly uphill with about 1000 feet of elevation climb.
Less than 100 runners finished. The medal was ridiculously dinky. Food was a family pack of Oreos (take your own) and large bags of chips, not single serve. So weird.
Depends on the weather
I ran this in 2025, on a dry and partly sunny morning. The air was a perfect low 70s and race time. The scenery, which i’m used to because this … MORE
I ran this in 2025, on a dry and partly sunny morning. The air was a perfect low 70s and race time. The scenery, which i’m used to because this is my home town, was lovely.
You’ll run up toward Hamakua, mostly on the sidewalk but often on the dirt shoulder of the road. People say this is dangerous, but that’s a little dramatic. To my knowledge no one has ever been run over by a vehicle while running this race. It’s true there isn’t much police or first responder presence.
There’s a bit of a climb, but not too much, a few hundred feet. The way back is net downhill, but something about this course feels uphill both ways.
The finish line has a dj and they’ll be there to give you your medal as you cross the finish line. And there are plenty of snacks and fluids waiting nearby for your consumption.
Now, in 2026, we were having a major storm front come through that week, every beach and park in the state was shut down, and there was catastrophic flooding on Oahu and over on the Kona side. There was major doubt whether this race would happen, but Hilo was mostly spared. We had a ton of rain and civil defense was blowing up our phones with flash flood warnings the day before.
Race morning was calm and only a little wet. There weren’t as many people as previous years. About an hour into it, the rain started dumping down in buckets. The whole thing was a slog, soaking wet and trudging around puddles. Finish line was muddy and slippery and the medals were being handed out by one guy in a chair off to the side, under the awning of hotel in order to stay dry.
So it was a different experience entirely from other years.
Close to the Hilo airport
Hilo is not a resort area, so if you are coming here with the idea of relaxing spending time before or after the race, perhaps Kona is a better choice … MORE
Hilo is not a resort area, so if you are coming here with the idea of relaxing spending time before or after the race, perhaps Kona is a better choice for that. The host hotel was about a mile from the race start/finish. We saw a fair amount of homeless people in town.
I was prepared for the hills and honestly it wasn’t that bad. First 3 or so miles was a gradual incline along a 2 lane busy road. Not so scenic. But then you turn off into residential area and this had some beautiful views. It was an out and back, so the down hill part was heavenly! 197 runners in the half. So not a big event. Small hometown feel. Swag was a big disappointing. They ran out of my size for the t-shirt and the design not so great. They had a nice little expo. Only water was offered post race. They claim of hundreds of volunteers along the course is simply false. I think this is a good race if you are going for a half in every state. Easy in and easy out.
Old Hawaii beautiful run!
I ran this race just prior to the world shutting down. I was supposed to run the Barcelona Marathon, but it got cancelled so I flew the other direction to … MORE
I ran this race just prior to the world shutting down. I was supposed to run the Barcelona Marathon, but it got cancelled so I flew the other direction to Hawaii, where the “Pandemic” had not happened yet. It was a great race that was beautiful. The run was through historic Hilo, on oceanfront roads and through canopies. It reminded me of the Big Sur Marathon, which I have since run!
Good 50th State run
Overall Rating: Middle of the road. It was a good balance of all the marathons I’ve run up to this point. Course Difficulty: It was pretty tough. Other reviews that … MORE
Overall Rating: Middle of the road. It was a good balance of all the marathons I’ve run up to this point.
Course Difficulty: It was pretty tough. Other reviews that I read said there were some challenging hills…I would say this is in the top five most challenging runs that I’ve done as far as hills go. Plan on going up or down, sometimes steep for the first 16 miles, and then slight grades for the last 10. The first 12 miles are pretty shaded, but be ready for full sun and warm temps for the end of the race. This race is also run on open roads, some with narrow shoulders, and can be a little dangerous. I almost got hit by a tractor trailer, and ran into another runner trying to get out of this guys way; he was going way too fast, but still, something to keep in mind.
Course Scenery: Amazing for the first 20 miles, not so much after that. You will get an excellent representation of the big island on this run. Waterfalls, surfers, rainforest, lava beaches, sea spray, etc.
Race Production: It was ok. After doing ultras for a while, I have forgotten the difference between ultra aid stations and marathon aid stations. There were three places that had hammer gels, and water/Gatorade every two miles. Volunteers were excellent, the race started on time, and timing mats worked throughout the course. Packet pickup was fine and pretty smooth. I really don’t have any complaints, but I also don’t have that “overwhelmed by how good it was” feeling either, so like I said at the beginning, it was ok.
Race Swag: Good medal, nice short sleeve tech shirt.
My Performance: Awesome…uh…I mean, average. I just don’t have enough self control to go to Hawaii and not hike six miles in to see the green sand beach, or hike down to the black sand on the north coast, so I was tired at the start. Add to that the three 100k’s I’ve done this year, and my severe underestimation of the hills and heat, and I’m ok with average. I don’t think we need to spend too much time on that though, I mean c’mon, I’m in Hawaii running my 50th state marathon; the whole thing was a celebration!
Final notes: This Marathon was the perfect end to my KR 50/50 Challenge! It was a good representation of all the runs that I completed to get to this point, and it made me earn the medal. I’m happy with the choice, and getting this state crossed off of the list.
If you’re looking to run this course, bring a few of you’re own gels, some salt, and a little sunscreen; you’ll be good to go!
Beautiful somewhat challenging course.
Awesome event. Well organized. A must do!! Race director is a true professional who makes every effort to make everyone’s experience memorable. It’s Hawaii at its very best. MORE
Awesome event. Well organized. A must do!! Race director is a true professional who makes every effort to make everyone’s experience memorable. It’s Hawaii at its very best.
It's a race
The old course. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX MORE
The old course. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX