Major marathons returned this year, and it was great to see — though keeping track of the races’ coronavirus-modified schedules and guidelines must have been a pain for dedicated runners looking to get back in the loop.

Road races were canceled last year when the pandemic was at its worst. They clawed their way back this year with smaller fields, brand-new safety protocols and, occasionally, completely different dates that set the stage for a planning nightmare.

The iconic Boston Marathon, for example, was held in October instead of its usual April “Marathon Monday” date. The Los Angeles Marathon, normally a March event, was rescheduled to the same day as the New York City Marathon — the first Sunday in November, which is New York’s traditional date.

Former competitive runner Shalane Flanagan made headlines when she decided that instead of picking and choosing which of the six major races to enter within a six-week span — Berlin, London, Chicago, Boston, Tokyo and New York — she would run in all of them, aiming for sub-3:00 times in each.

(In case you were wondering, she pulled it off. New York was her last and best finish — 2:33:32.)

If you think lumping races together created a precarious balancing act, consider that these events are set for their normal dates next year, which could truncate training schedules for folks who plan to run the same marathon again. (Practicing to run 26.2 miles takes months, not to mention recovery time afterward.)

Our own Honolulu Marathon faced timing issues this year that I found quite frustrating. While I’m out of the road-running business, I’ve completed enough events (two marathons, more than a dozen half-marathons and a handful of shorter distances) to be critical of the city’s extremely late decision on whether or not the marathon could be held in-person.

The Honolulu Marathon had been slated as a “virtual” event — in which runners log their own 26.2 distances and submit that data as their entry — but was approved late last month to be an in-person race.

Great news for the city’s pandemic recovery, but not if you were relying on that announcement to determine whether or not you would participate.

Many dedicated runners, of course, would have begun training anyway or opted for the virtual event, but there are more “just because” marathoners out there than you might think. Trying to prepare for a 26.2-mile run in a mere six weeks, while not impossible, is pretty darn difficult.

The half-marathon distance alone requires at least two to three months of training in order to be well-prepared.

The other major races set their delayed-till-fall dates well in advance, giving indecisive people a shot at a decent training schedule.

Despite the timing miscue, I can’t complain about the new safety measures in place both here and in other cities. Proof of vaccination, staggered starts, safety-minded aid stations — all good ideas as the nation continues to fight the coronavirus. People who don’t agree with the protocols can opt to run 26.2 miles on their own.

While it’s great to see these events strive to ensure the safety of their participants and workers, it will also be a relief when COVID-19 no longer looms as large and we can find a sense of normalcy again.

At the very least, runners won’t have to flip a coin or shred their schedules in order to check a major marathon off their list.