Honolulu Marathon

rain, rain and more rain wrote:

If you're running sub 2:40 maybe you will be whisked away to your hotel like a VIP after you come into the park, but us mere mortals will have to deal with picnicking on the grass which is already saturated.

Oh, I see. Your main concern is the grass being wet for you picnic. Sorry about that.

Yes, Honolulu that is my main concern.

Where have you been?

It's been the second Sunday in December tradition in Honolulu for the past 34 years!

You run a marathon then you party in the park with 25,000+ other finishers.

http://www.athleteshi.com/reviews%20Honolulu%20Marathon%202006.htm

Do you get out much?

Were you on the case of those that came on this board in April to warn Boston Marathoners about the upcoming bad weather on April 16th?

Or those that came on in October to tell those planning a record run in Chicago to reconsider?

P.S. If you truly have been to Kapiolani Park lately than you have seen that the grass is not just "wet",

but actually submerged in places.

It's 4:00 and dry along the Ala Wai canal.

the canal is dry?!!!

Oh, those poor fish!

and where will the canoe clubs practice?

Things look rather damp all over Honolulu at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Smiling Bob wrote:

Things look rather damp all over Honolulu at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Good thing the race is on Sunday at 500a.

Just back from the USATF meeting and I'd much prefer a warm rain to the dry cold (27F) I ran in back here this AM - talk about body shock!

Ran in the SAM's 5K Sunday and it was raining (lightly) but very windy during the race, but actually kind of pleasant relief from the humidity. On the way back to the hotel the skies let loose and I wound up ducking under a bus stop, but the wind was still blowing the rain in almost sideways and mixed w/ sand from the beach it was not pleasant to be blasted in the face with.

Oddly, the next day I saw some parks guys out in a truck watering the hanging plants on the lightpoles, even though they were obviously soaked from the weekend's rain. I guess they were just city employees following their job descriptions to the T.

Hope the weather comes around for Sunday's marathoners. A nice light drizzle would seem to be pretty desirable. We'll probably have snow squalls here.

Yes, the latest from the NWS does look like there is a chance to salvage the race weather-wise on Sunday morning

http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?FcstType=text&site=hfo&textField1=21.28&textField2=-157.83

The heavy rain that is forecast for today, Thursday, Friday and Saturday finally may lighten up Saturday night, Sunday morning with the forecast being a chance of showers and most importantly winds switching over to the east.

News of the marathon was on the front page of the Honolulu Advertiser this morning.

http://honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071205/NEWS01/712050414/1001

Rainy weather affects the runners, their friends and family, the volunteers on the course, the wheelchair athletes and their bicycle escorts, the motorcycle escorts from HPD that lead the running race and the press that rides in the back of a flat bed truck.

Pre-race, entrants must make their way across the soggy grass and mud in Ala Moana Beach Park and then deal with the same at the finish line at Kapiolani Park.

Sure, we don't have it as bad as Seattle, but they're not running a marathon this weekend.

Estimates are that the marathon generates $100 million in revenue for not just the visitor industry, but the whole local economy, so ten straight days of rain (exactly like we had in 1987) concerns many. Tourists may leave with a bad impression of Hawaii and never come back.

About 2:30 pm and dry along the Ala Wai canal.

Thanks Bob!

You just reminded me of something.

Another remembrance of the 1987 Honolulu Marathon was Filbert Bayi and Jim Ryun ran a one mile duel down Kalakaua Avenue. Jim Ryun is back again this year.

A few other things that could be affected by the excess rain is the fireworks that go off at the start. If the clouds are hanging low, the fireworks disappear into them and you see next to nothing.

If the high winds and rains stick around, the Christmas lights that are left on around Iolani Palace and Honolulu Hale (between mile 2 and 3) might be a problem. We had several blackouts all over the island last night because of downed power poles and tree branches falling on power lines.

Also Mike Burns and his ChampionChip Timing guys have to take extra precautions to keep their cables and computers dry at their finish line tent which right now is underwater.

Also install walls if the Kona winds persist in blowing the rain sideways.

The clothing bags you drop off at the park before race day are under a tent, but the floor is grass. Same with the Finisher T-shirt tent. They do stack the boxes on palettes, but that's only 3 to 4 inches above the ground.

Forever the optimist...I will see you all on sunny Sunday!

Just after 5 pm and dry by the Ala Moana mall.

rain, rain, I know Mike Burns too. Do we know each other? Hint: I was there in '87 also, ran the Diamond Head duet and attended the TAC convention.

72 hours before race time and it looks wet from downtown to Kapiolani Park & up Likelike St which has heavy traffic.

Report from the Legends 5 km this morn at Kapiolani Park was wet, soggy conditions then a big downpour followed the race. Several hours later now, roads are dry.

Yes, Bob it was wet at the Bandstand this morning. The winds have died down for now.

I am hoping all the tourists get at least a couple hours of clear skies for the Carbo Loading Party at the Waikiki Shell tomorrow night. Teresa Bright, Cecelio and Henry Kapono and ukelele sensation Jake Shimabukuro will be performing.

Here's some photos from the windy weather we had overnight Tuesday into Wednesday.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Dec/06/ln/weather.html

Photo #16 is near my house. I (used to) run by this tree all the time. It's about a thousand meters from the marathon finish line on Kalakaua Avenue.

A friend reminded me that it was Kip Keino (not Filbert Bayi) that came to town 20 years ago and ran against Jim Ryun. Also that was the year they had food poisoning (lettuce left out at room temperature) when the party was at Aloha Tower. Kjell-Erik Stahl got sick.

Frank S. is in town and I was surprised Alberto S. made it. I figured his doctor would tell him not to travel.

It rained big time on the marathoners and Mayor's Walkers! Oh my. Slowest winning men's time in 16 years: 2:17.

Looking at a shot from a camera across the street from Kapiolani Park by the Denny's, sunny & dry at 5:10 pm. I'm sure there will be a legion of gimpy Japanese 'tourist' runners walking the streets tomorrow sporting the unqiue Marathon shirt that goes to the finishers.

Do they still give out shell lei's to finishers?

Yes Bob, you still earn a shell lei at the finish line.

The Kamehameha School girl cheerleaders have the honor of lei'ing all those sweaty marathoners and there's some boys there to give to the women.

I would like to hear from David Monti and Boy Wonder on their observations and experiences of yesterday.

It rained at 2am and again at 4am, but the real rain came when we were all in the staging area at 4:40am. Everyone was huddled together waiting for the 5:00am start and here comes this 60 second shower. It's not called a 60 second shower because it only lasted a minute (it lasted 10 minutes!), it's because the intensity of it is equal to standing under a shower at home and getting completely soaked to the bone in that minute's time. More rain came around 5:25am and there were lots of ponding on the roads Ala Moana near Kalakaua and Paki near Monsarrat. Some people experienced some light showers out Hawaii Kai way, but when the sun did come out and it was quite bright and strong around 9am.

The real experience was the mud fest at Kapiolani Park. People were slipping and sliding and skating across what used to be grass. When you stepped off Kalakaua and up to the curb in the refreshment area it resembled Woodstock and the surface road between the Nike souvenir tent and the bandstand had six inches of muck. It was this bad back in 1987, so if you come back in 2027 I guess we can expect a repeat of these conditions.

26.2 miles for another ugly finisher t-shirt. Bright Yellow, that incorporated an old design used by Bjorn Skrimstad back in the early 80's but updated with their copyrighted Kukini runner.

Yes Bob, I know Mike Burns and David Simms from Burns Computer Timing.

rain, rain and more rain wrote:

26.2 miles for another ugly finisher t-shirt. Bright Yellow, that incorporated an old design used by Bjorn Skrimstad back in the early 80's but updated with their copyrighted Kukini runner.

Which design is that? The '77 - '80 design with the stripes?

Yes, they gave away a free poster this past week of the 34 years of t-shirt designs used before and it was kind of an amalgam of designs like 1979, 1980 and 1986.

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/l/Facts___Figures/history/Historybyyear/1979.htm

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/l/Facts___Figures/history/Historybyyear/1980.htm

http://www.honolulumarathon.org/l/Facts___Figures/history/Historybyyear/1986.htm