Honolulu Marathon
| Honolulu Marathon | |
|---|---|
| Date | Second Sunday in December 2015: December 13, 2015 |
| Location | Honolulu, Hawaii, USA |
| Event type | Road |
| Distance | Marathon |
| Primary sponsor | Japan Airlines (JAL) |
| Established | 1973 |
| Course records |
Men: 2:11:12 (2004) Jimmy Muindi Women: 2:27:19 (2006) Lyubov Denisova |
| Official site | honolulumarathon |
The Honolulu Marathon (branded JAL Honolulu Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is a major 26.2-mile (42.2 km) marathon in Honolulu, Hawaii. It is one of the world's largest marathons, taking place annually on the second Sunday in December. The marathon is popular for its exotic location in Hawaii, and is also popular among first-time marathoners, many of whom are visitors from Japan. In addition to title sponsor Japan Airlines, the marathon is also sponsored (as of 2012) by Adidas, MUFG Financial Group, NTT DoCoMo, and Sato Pharmaceuticals USA.
The 2012 Honolulu Marathon was held on Sunday, December 9, 2012. The field for the 40th Honolulu Marathon reached 30,898 entries at the marathon expo at the Hawaii Convention Center. 16,067 of those registered entrants were from Japan. The 2012 marathon was the largest in 15 years, and the second largest in America of 2012, only surpassed by the Chicago Marathon.
The race began in 1973. During its formative period (1973–1978) the Honolulu Marathon doubled in size every year—a rate that has been equaled only once. That growth, like the growth of long-distance running itself, came about not from an interest in competition, but from a quest for personal longevity and an enhanced quality of life. Former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi has been inducted in the Honolulu Marathon Hall of Fame after documents proved that he was the true founder of the race 40 years ago.
Mayor Fasi died in 2010. With the Honolulu Marathon just days away, race officials say they have undisputed proof that Fasi made it all happen.
"We were clearing out some files and we saw a box labeled 1973 and we saw the documents that showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that Mayor Fasi was the creator and the founder of the marathon," said Jim Barahal, Honolulu Marathon President.
Now drawing more than 20,000 entries a year, the Honolulu Marathon is one of the biggest in the country. Back in 1973, there wasn't widespread interest in it. But Mayor Fasi knew about the Boston Marathon, and saw its potential here. At the forefront of the growth of the Honolulu Marathon was cardiologist Jack Scaff, one of the first physicians to prescribe running as therapy for heart disease. In 1977 Sports Illustrated's senior writer and Olympic marathoner Kenny Moore wrote a feature story about the race. That article was soon followed by the book "The Honolulu Marathon," by journalist Mark Hazard Osmun; the book was a revelatory chronicle of the then-unfolding social craze called the "Running Boom," as exemplified in the Honolulu event.
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