Honolulu Marathon

The Honolulu Marathon (branded JAL Honolulu Marathon for sponsorship reasons) is a marathon (26.2 miles or 42.2 km) in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was first held on December 16, 1973, and it typically takes places on the second Sunday in December. The marathon is popular for its tropical location in Hawaii, and is also popular among first-time marathoners, many of whom are visitors from Japan. Japan Air Lines has been the title sponsor of the race since 1985.

About 20,000 runners finish the Honolulu Marathon each year, and it is one of the five largest marathons in the United States. Entry to the Honolulu Marathon is open to anyone, and there is neither a lottery nor a set of qualifying times. There is also no time limit to finish the course. From 1973 to 2006, more than 585,000 runners have started the Honolulu Marathon, with over 482,000 finishers, for a finishing rate of over 82%.

The race was first organized by Former Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi in 1973, taking an interest in organizing the race after observing the Boston Marathon and the positive impact that came with the race.^{[citation needed]}

During its formative period (1973–1978) the Honolulu Marathon doubled in size every year—a rate that has been equaled only once.

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. Moore postured that, like the growth of long-distance running itself, the race's success came about not simply from an interest in competition, but from a quest for personal longevity and an enhanced quality of life. 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 coined the "Running Boom," as exemplified in the Honolulu event.

Over time, the race grew and changed, luring large corporate sponsors and paying substantial prize money to the winners. In 1995, the Honolulu Marathon enjoyed the distinction of being the world's largest marathon when it drew 34,434 entrants and had 27,022 finishers.

Unique to the Honolulu Marathon among American marathons is its popularity among runners from Japan, where there are very few marathons open to all entrants. In recent years, the majority of entrants have been visitors from Japan; notably in 2008, 14,406 of the total 23,231 entries were from Japan, making up nearly 62.0 percent of the field. The marathon is so popular that the Honolulu Marathon Association maintains an office in Tokyo to process entries.

In 2007, race organizers switched from the ChampionChip timing system they had used since 2000 to a new system from SAI which utilized a smaller, lighter, chip implanted in a strip of paper. For a myriad of reasons that are not entirely clear (heavy rains, improper usage, failed generators), the timing devices apparently failed to accurately record the start, split and finish times of all 24,300 participants, forcing race officials to manually review finish line video tape of all 24,000+ runners in order to confirm their correct finishing times. The same year, Ethiopian Ambesse Tolossa was disqualified as the men's champion because the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found he had a banned substance in his system.