With more than 22,000 participants, the 18th annual Great Aloha Run will employ staggered starts for the first time, said race director Alan Sunio. Great Aloha Run
has new formatBy Pat Gee
pgee@starbulletin.comHopefully it will "make the race start more orderly and safer for everyone."
Sunio said there will be three groups of runners this year, who will be divided into groups based on the expected finish time they put on their application form.
The 8.15-mile President's Day road race will start at 6:50 a.m. on Monday at Aloha Tower, at the foot of Bishop Street on Nimitz Highway, and finish at Aloha Stadium.
The "Sounds of Freedom," a 4,000-member group of active military runners, will start the race shouting cadence while running in formation. Competitive racewalkers and wheelchair participants, fast-trackers, Presidents 100 Clubs (groups of 100 or more), walkers and strollers will take part.Everyone will be issued a number and one of three different color bibs -- yellow, green or pink -- denoting their estimated finish time. The Sounds of Freedom and wheelchair participants will start at 6:50 a.m., with no cannon to set them off.
The cannon will be fired for each of the three staggered starts: Elite runners and those wearing yellow bibs will start at 7 a.m.; green bibs at 7:10 a.m.; and pink bibs, for walkers and those with strollers, at 7:20 a.m. They will be separated by volunteers who will move them up by group to the start line, Sunio said.
Malcolm Campbell of Great Britain, a three-time winner of the race, and Jonathan Lyau of Hawaii, the 1994 winner and one of the state's most consistent race winners during the past 20 years, will run in the race, which Runner's World magazine has named as one of the top events in the United States.
Participants should pick up their race numbers and timing microchips at the Great Aloha Run Health, Fitness & Sports Expo, which begins today at the Neal Blaisdell Center Exhibition Hall, 777 Ward Ave. The expo is open today from 4 to 10 p.m., tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Information on parking and transportation to the starting point will be given at the expo. Entry to the expo for all registrants is free; for other adults, $3; and for children and seniors, $1.50. Call 528-7388 about late entrance fees for the main Monday race and the Silver Streaks Sunrise Walk and Keiki Great Aloha Run tomorrow.
The senior event is for anyone 55 years or older. The 2-plus-mile course around Ala Moana Park starts at 7:30 a.m. at McCoy Pavilion.
The keiki event, just under 2 miles, starts at 8:30 a.m. from the expo site, goes around McKinley High School and ends at the West Concourse of the Exhibition Hall.
>> 30,000 spectators, 3,000 volunteers, 2,240 volunteer computer-input hours Great Aloha Run factoids:
>> 60,000 liters of sports drink, 25,000 bananas, 30,000 Mauna Loa cookies, 17,400 pounds of rice, 11,500 gallons of water at the aid stations and finish line
>> 92,000 pins for bibs with running numbers
>> 250,000 paper cups, 250 pairs of disposable gloves, 1,400 garbage bags
>> 145 port-a-potties, 705 rolls of toilet paperSource: Great Aloha Run
Great Aloha Run