HONOLULU MARATHON 2005
December
11, 2005
a
photo show PHOTOGRAPHY BY RUNNER RODNEY CHANG
The Start right before the cannon
We're packed like sardines, just before the 5 am take off (around 28,000 runners).
Your photographer going for his 5th marathon for in a year-
making the Shaka Hawaiian greetings sign.
The run starts at Ala Moana Blvd next to the Ala Moana
Shopping Center, close to Waikiki.
Then it courses to downtown and passes these beautiful Christmas display around
City Hall.
This sign lights up the still dark morning course.
More Christmas cheer
Then we move from downtown backs to Ala Moana Blvd and into Waikiki itself.
We pass the famous Outrigger Waikiki Hotel.
Leaving Waikiki we hit the 7 mile mark just pass the Honolulu
Zoo. You'll
know when you pass the camel's area. Ugh!
The sunrise arrives going up Diamond Head crater for the average runner.
Look at the hoards of humanity, still bunched where we
start descending the northern slope
of Diamond Head Creater.
That's at 15K
An aid station in Kahala, close to where I live; I pass my wife and son who wish me well, then go back to sleep.
The cheering is loudest here under the H-1 freeway - overpass
over Waialae Avenue - due to the echoing of the
cheering crowds.
Now onward to Hawaii Kai at the 11 mile mark.
We cross over to the right lane of Kalanianaole Highway as we
approach Kalani High School.
This is the beginning of the long killer stretch of highway from Kahala to
Hawaii Kai. Runners
have to do this long drag twice, looping back.
Destination on this highway is to that extinct volcanic crater in the distance- Koko Head Crater.
