Honolulu Marathon – News – Kalakaua Merrie Mile Extends Competitive Running Tradition In Honolulu

KALAKAUA MERRIE MILE EXTENDS COMPETITIVE RUNNING TRADITION IN HONOLULU
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permisison.

(21-Nov) — Back in the 1990’s some of the world’s best middle distance runners made year-end trips to Honolulu to run the Waikiki Mile, a road mile sponsored by Nike which was held in conjunction with the Honolulu Marathon.  In its final year in 1997, Canadian Graham Hood (3:55:66) and American Regina Jacobs (4:26.05) won in course record times, and Hood made $19,000 in prize money and time bonuses while Jacobs earned $18,000.

Sadly, the race didn’t have a sustainable financial model and had to be discontinued.

“We loved the Waikiki Mile; it was an amazing event,” explained Honolulu Marathon Association president Jim Barahal in a telephone interview.  “We had the World Class Mile (for the elites), but we also had thousands of school kids participating before the professional race.  We were paying for all of that, so it became financially unfeasible.  We always loved doing that mile and thought it was a great event.”

Fast forward almost 18 years and Barahal saw an opportunity to bring the mile back as part of the Honolulu Marathon weekend which will be December 9 and 10 this year.  He was intrigued by how the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City had recorded over 6,000 finishers in 2015, and was surprised to learn that recreational runners were ready to pay an entry fee to run only a mile instead of the more common five miles or 10 kilometers.

“I had noticed that there was, like, 7,000 people in the Fifth Avenue Mile,” Barahal recalled.  He continued: “That’s an interesting concept.  The reason we stopped the mile in the first place is we couldn’t self-fund it any longer.  Once we realized that if participants wanted to have that experience this made it financially feasible.”

In 2016 Barahal’s team rolled out the Kalakaua Merrie Mile on an out-and-back course on Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki using a different course from the old Waikiki Mile.  The race recorded 1330 finishers, and Barahal knew the event was back for good.

“We had huge participation the first year,” Barahal said.  “It seemed like a winner for sure.”

An important aspect of the event was having an elite heat like the old Waikiki Mile, but Barahal wanted to do something different.  Inspired by the male/female challenge at the Los Angeles Marathon, he decided to give the elite women a head start and have the elite men try to…