Thousands of runners have already made their way to O‘ahu…as the Honolulu Marathon takes place this weekend.
It’s the 4th largest race in the country and attendance for this year is expected to be even larger than last year- with more than 32,000-participants already signed up- and more expected throughout the weekend. 13,000 runners are coming from Japan alone and participants from the US mainland are up 30% with more than 1,000 coming from California alone. The event is expected to bring $130-million into the local economy.
There is no set time required to complete the race-though most people take around 6 hours to finish. Defending champions Wilson Chebet and Joyce Chepkirui, both of Kenya, return aiming to retain their titles. Chepkirui recently won and set a new personal best of 2:24:11 at the Amsterdam Marathon. Jim Barahal is the President of the Honolulu Marathon.
The Honolulu Marathon starts with a fireworks display Sunday morning at 5 am.
More information can be found at honolulumarathon.org