Saturday Briefing

By Dr. Richard Kelley

The Honolulu Marathon always amazes me, and this year is no exception. It is the third-largest marathon in the country — trailing only New York (85,000 applicants, although capacity allows only about half to be accepted) and Chicago (35,000) — and the sixth-largest in the world. Considering Honolulu’s small population, our Marathon’s popularity is phenomenal. According to the Honolulu Advertiser, it is Hawaii’s largest sporting event.

In spite of worldwide economic problems, registrations for the 36th annual Honolulu Marathon, to be run a week from tomorrow, are excellent, and we are hoping for 26,000 starters. There is no question this is down from the approximately 28,000 seen during the past three years. However, this is a relief, because the much steeper recent drops in the number of visitors to Hawaii and in available airline seats had many people concerned that the number of Marathon entrants this year would fall significantly.

One of the biggest reasons for the year-after-year success of the Honolulu Marathon is Japan’s support of and interest in the event. Japan Airlines is the major sponsor, and other well-known Japanese sponsors, such as MUFG Card, Konami, DoCoMo, SATOHAP, Subaru, and Konica-Minolta add financial and promotional assistance. There will be around 20,000 entrants from Japan in the race and its accompanying, noncompetitive Race Day Walk this year, about the same as in 2007.

Another factor is that the yen has strengthened substantially in the past year. It was recently pegged at 93 to the dollar, compared to 111 in 2007, making it about 16 percent cheaper for Japanese to visit Hawaii this year.

The strong turnout from Japan also reflects the fact that in recent years, several Japanese women have been strong contenders, going head-to-head against elite runners from Kenya and Russia. For example, Eri Hayakawa of Tokyo took first place in the women’s division in 2003. In 2007, she was back along with several elite Japanese runners, including Kaori Yoshida and Akemi Ozemi Ishige, but unfortunately, she will not return this year.

There is always a great deal of interest in the elite runners. This year, six-time winner, Kenyan Jimmy Muindi, will be wearing Bib #1, as he tries for his seventh victory. In the women’s division, Alevtina Biktimirova of Russia will also wear Bib #1, as she tries to repeat her 2007 win.

Patrick Ivuti of Kenya, brother-in-law of Muindi, is also a top contender this year as well as Ethiopia’s Hailu Negussie.

For the first time, we have a woman who once held the open world record in the marathon. That is Kenya’s Margaret Okayo, who ran 2 hours, 20 minutes and 43 seconds in the Boston Marathon in 2002.

Here’s a more complete list of the elite runners who will undoubtedly be closely watched for record-breaking performances.

Men
Bib    Name and Country
1    Jimmy Muindi - Kenya
2    Stephen Njoroge Kinyanjui - Kenya
3    Joseph Mutiso Wambua - Kenya
4    Pius Muasa Mutuku - Kenya
5    Samuel Mwangi Gichohi - Kenya
6    Hailu Negussie - Ethiopia
7    Halefom Abebe - Ethiopia
8    Patrick Ivuti - Kenya
9    Laban Moiben - Kenya

Women
Bib    Name and Country
1    Alevtina Biktimirova - Russia
2    Kiyoko Shimahara - Japan
3    Lyubov Morgunova - Russia
4    Olesya Nurgalieva - Russia
5    Elena Nurgalieva - Russia
6    Kaori Yoshida - Japan
7    Olga Romanova - Russia
8    Alice Timbilili - Kenya
9    Margaret Okayo - Kenya

This year’s “celebrity entrants” might well be Gladys Burrill, a 90-year-old great-great-grandmother, and 81-year-old Betty Jean McHugh. According to Emax Health, Burrill, who has walked five marathons, is training to set a world record for the 90-94-year-old age group. To do it, she must finish in under 8 hours and 53 minutes. Burrill says, “Just forget about age and enjoy getting out there and exercising and walking or running or whatever you do.” She and young Ms. McHugh — the world record-holder for 80-84-year-olds — are inspiring.

There are many other race week activities. Wednesday through Saturday, there will be an exposition at the Hawaii Convention Center. Many years ago, we hosted the expo at the Outrigger Reef, but as the Marathon grew, we ran out of space. Usually over 60,000 people attend.

Saturday night, there will be a luau and concert for over 7,000 people at the Waikiki Shell.

The Honolulu Marathon has a huge economic impact on the entire state and in particular, on Waikiki. Hawaii Pacific University students have studied the Honolulu Marathon for several years. They found that runners and their traveling companions spend much of the month in Waikiki’s shops and restaurants. They estimated that in 2007, the Marathon brought a record $109 million in visitor spending to Hawaii and generated over $3.7 million in taxes. Those numbers do not include spending by local participants. There is every reason to believe the economic impact of this year’s race will approach historic highs.
Outrigger and OHANA Hotels & Resorts are the official hotels of the Honolulu Marathon. In return, we provide complimentary and/or deeply discounted accommodations for many of the elite runners brought in by the organizers. Our Waikiki properties will run high occupancies all week, and we expect to be nearly sold out Saturday night! This is quite a contrast to the typical pre-holiday slump experienced at our neighbor island properties.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to the Honolulu Marathon Association and particularly to its President, Dr. Jim Barahal. When he assumed its leadership in 1987, the Marathon had only 10,413 entrants. With a lot of work and dedication, the Marathon has more than doubled in size, with more than 70 percent of the entrants coming from out of state.

Pat Bigold, Director of Media Relations for the Honolulu Marathon, notes that Dr. Barahal is to be credited with two remarkable acts of judgment and timing recently. In 2006, he decided just weeks before the race to buy portable defibrillators, and his doctors wound up using them to save a runner’s life at the finish line that year. In 2007, he decided to reinstitute drug testing for his top finishers, and the men’s apparent winner was caught testing positive for a banned substance.

Dr. Barahal puts in countless hours to make the Honolulu Marathon a premier sporting event. He has been honored with the Neal Shaw Blaisdell Award for “exemplary efforts to bring great recognition to sports in Hawaii,” but he deserves more accolades than that for his 21 astounding years leading this world-class event.

The Honolulu Marathon must not be taken for granted. Data shows there has been an irregular but definite downward trend in the number of entrants over the past decade. Even though the number of racers for the past three years has hovered around 28,000, that is still some 16 percent under the peak reached in 1995. As stated earlier, this year’s numbers will be even lower.

The Honolulu Marathon deserves the support of everyone who benefits from it, including hotels, shops, restaurants, transportation providers, a wide range of other businesses, many of them far from Waikiki, and directly or indirectly, all the people of Hawaii.

At the finish line, only a handful of competitors are listed as winners, but in reality, everybody in Hawaii wins when the Honolulu Marathon races into town.