Honolulu Marathon - RunMarathon

My first marathon.

Bonked at about the 16.5 mile mark. I had taken gel packs about every 50 minutes at an aid station with water. I stretched one gap between gel packs a little too far and I felt it.
Also had a defect in my left shoe that I didn't notice on training runs (had the shoes for about 5 weeks prior to the race) This defect applied pressure to the bones at the base of my little toes that became unbearable at times forcing me to stop and re-adjust the shoe. Stopping during marathon - bad.
I started having hip problems about 20 mile mark. Slowed me down coming down off the Diamond Head hill since the pounding just aggravated it. I was less than 2 miles from the finish at that point though and I pushed through it.

Be religious about gel packing on my planned intervals. It had worked throughout the race except for the one stretch.

Walk it out!!!


Bad equipment (shoes) and missing the one gel. Also, my training was pretty good in that I was putting in the miles, I just should have worked in a few more quality training runs with speed work and the like. More weight work I think needed, too.


This is a very fun race. The Aloha spirit is very visible everywhere. People were having fun on this race. All through the middle section of the race through Hawaii Kai, people were standing in their driveways with bowls of candy or trail mix or other snacks. The volunteer were AWESOME! This is a great first marathon for anyone. I think if you can't finish this one, you haven't made any effort to train physically or mentally at all. The last guy to finish did it in 15:40:08 and there were still volunteers at the finish waiting for him!