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Despite COVID-19, the Honolulu Marathon is going to happen Dec. 13, according to the event’s president.
Whether it is actually run on the streets of Oahu or only in cyberspace is another question Jim Barahal and other marathon officials are working on now.
“There will be a virtual event,” Barahal said in a phone interview Thursday. “We understand that there will be a group of people who still won’t feel good about traveling, and we don’t know what travel restrictions will be in place. So, whether it’s an alternative or the only way, people can do it online and get a shirt and medal.”
All three events of the weekend — the Kalakaua Merrie Mile on Saturday and Sunday’s Start to Park 10K and main event 26.2-mile marathon — will have at least a virtual element, Barahal said.
“There are different (online) platforms. We’re still deciding which will work best for us,” he said.
“That doesn’t mean we’re giving up on the actual event, and we’ll have virtual available even if we do put on the actual event. I think we’ve got a chance. More than a puncher’s chance.”
Barahal sounds optimistic, and the economic jolt the marathon provides is needed more than ever after months of business shutdowns.
But he’s also realistic about the idea of putting thousands of people out on the streets amid what could still be dangerous pandemic conditions.
“Gosh almighty, we don’t know what things will look like,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to do anything unsafe.”
The Berlin (Sept. 27) and New York (Nov. 1) marathons were canceled last week, joining Boston, which was postponed and then canceled. London (Oct. 4) and Chicago (Oct. 11) still hope to hold their races, but neither is a sure thing at this point. (Tokyo is the only of the six majors that was held prior to COVID-19 concerns, on March 1.) Also, the Olympic marathon was canceled along with the rest of the summer games.
“It would be great if another big marathon happens (before Honolulu),” Barahal said. “But if it doesn’t, we’re willing to be the first. Obviously, that would be with a lot of tweaking of it.”
Two other fairly well-known 26.2-mile races, the Haspen Marathon Hamburg in Germany and the Marine Corps Marathon in Virginia and the District of Columbia are set for Sept. 13 and Oct. 25, with major modifications. (However, Hamburg officials have recently paused registration, citing a lack of direction from city officials.)
If Hamburg happens, runners will be issued a tubular face and neck covering that can be lowered from the nose and mouth during the race. In the Marine Corps Marathon instead of an enmasse start, small pods of runners will begin the race together at one-minute intervals.
Hawaii’s isolation might keep runners from flying here. But if the state’s coronavirus infection rates remain low it could bode well for the Honolulu Marathon to be run even if the field is mostly residents — and people from Japan, where infection rates are also low.
“Our two big markets are Hawaii and Japan and we’ve already got about 9,000 entries from Hawaii because of early registration,” Barahal said. “Japan entries are not open yet. In the (2019) marathon we had about 12,000 from Japan, and about 16 or 17,000 total participants from Japan (in the three events).”
With so many prominent marathons canceled or at risk, if Honolulu does stay the course its elite field could benefit.
“Honolulu has some interesting organic features that make it anti-COVID,” said Race Results Weekly editor and publisher David Monti, who is also a Honolulu Marathon spokesperson. “Hawaii has protected its borders. But what will the travel restrictions be coming from other countries? Positive tests are on the rise in Africa. On the flip side, American athletes who made the Olympic team have few options. The only one potentially left is Chicago. If Chicago cancels and Americans can’t go to other countries, it suddenly becomes a buyers market.
“The biggest reason Americans don’t run in Honolulu is it’s hard to get a fast time and they need to qualify for something. Now they don’t need to qualify for anything. New York was licking its chops when the Olympics got canceled. Now they’ve canceled.”
Representatives of elite runners who normally wouldn’t be in Honolulu’s sights have approached him, Barahal said.
“There’s clearly an opportunity because of the cancellations,” he said. “However, the economics of that will determine things, because clearly it will be a smaller event this year. Our revenue comes from sponsorship and entry fees. Right now, we’re focused on doing everything we can to try to put the event on safely, working with the city and county.
“With the elites, we’re not sure what it’s going to look like, and it is an important element. But like everything with COVID it can change so fast. COVID time is different. A day is a week, a week is a month and a month is a year.”
Monti observed that although the marathon “industry is reeling from COVID,” the pandemic has also spurred a running boom.
“Many, many recreational runners are out there, probably in larger numbers than ever, looking for a safe, socially-distant activity they can do,” he said. “That part is healthy, that part is good.”
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