41st HONOLULU MARATHON

My day started with a miso soup, rice, croissant and passion fruit/orange/guava juice at the Leahi Club. My Ewa view:

I then took my traditional walk up Waikiki Beach.  When I got to the finish line, I looked back to the Waikiki Sheraton in the background.

The first Honolulu Marathon was run in 1973, and among the participants was Professor Gordon Dugan, my next door neighbor on the Manoa Campus.  We co-taught Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawaii.  Thirty-five years later he (in the middle) was one of only three who had raced every Honolulu Marathon.

The Honolulu Marathon today had more than 22,599 runners, half from Japan, but there more than 30,000 entries.  In 1995 Honolulu had the world's largest marathon with 34,434 entrants and 27,022 finishers.

The New York City Marathon last month had 50,304 finishers.  The world's largest running event, 10 kilometers, drew 209,000 in Pasay, Philippines.  San Francisco's Bay to Breakers had 110,000 participants in 1986.

For the record, Gilbert Chepkwony of Kenya won with a time of 2 hours, 18 minutes, 47 seconds.  Ehitu Kiros of Ethiopia was the women's winner in 2:36:02.

There was Santa Clause to greet the finishers:

Anyone who completes the marathon gained the satisfaction of making it, and, also got a lei, t-shirt and all the food they could eat.  Many said the freshly made malasadas were the best.

But that was not all, for on my way back, I stopped by Marukame Udon and took out a beef udon, ume musubi and vegetable tempura, which I had on my lanai:

-