[ OUR OPINION ]

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Aloha to marathoners
at Afghanistan venue

THE ISSUE Soldiers stationed in Afghanistan will take off on their own version of the Honolulu Marathon.

THE first runner to cross the finish line in this year's Honolulu Marathon will have had a head start, deservedly so. The initial 300 participants will be in Honolulu in spirit but will run past wooden palm trees and up a small hill renamed "Diamond Head" at a military base outside Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan. Because of the time difference, the Afghan version of the Honolulu race will be over before tomorrow's local contest begins.

The Afghan race's outcome will arrive in Honolulu by e-mail and be posted separately in the official results. The top three finishers will receive medals, official Honolulu Marathon T-shirts and koa bowls overflowing with the Honolulu runners' and fans' best wishes.

Army Capt. Ivan Hurlburt, a four-time veteran of the Honolulu Marathon, organized the race after a fellow soldier in the Hawaii-based 2nd Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, dreamed aloud of being back in Honolulu running in the marathon. Hurlburt says he and other soldiers were inspired by four-time Honolulu Marathon winner Patti Dillon, who sent Hurlburt a banner from her Connecticut home bearing her statement to a reporter, "If they're going to beat you, make 'em spit blood."

After Hurlburt gained sanction for the event from marathon officials by e-mail, some 300 runners, including 16 Honolulu Marathon veterans, signed up for the South Asia venue. Some of the runners will be Afghan soldiers and civilians and a few will be Japanese troops.

They will run six laps totaling 26.2 miles around a dusty airstrip, not far from a former Taliban stronghold where some believe Osama bin Laden is hiding. It will receive increased security in case the terrorists make a showing.

The Afghan race will begin there at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow -- 8 o'clock tonight Hawaii time -- to avoid temperatures below 50 degrees earlier in the morning; Sunday's high at nearby Kandahar is forecast to be 72. Participants will wear running shoes laced with microchips bearing the Honolulu Marathon logo and timing mats used to record their progress.

Good luck to all marathon participants on both sides of the globe.

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Coral transplant
a splendid solution

THE ISSUE Army divers are moving coral that would block navigation to Coconut Island.

A CORAL transplant project shows what can be accomplished through cooperation. All parties involved should be commended for fulfilling the others' needs while doing the right thing in preserving Hawaii's ocean environment.

Coral growing in a Kaneohe Bay channel was expected to impede boat traffic to and from the University of Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island. It would not do for marine biologists to go about wrecking parts of the very ecosystems they study, so they thought about moving the complexes of tiny polyps and their skeletons elsewhere.

It had been done before.

In 1996, Kawaihae Harbor on the Big Island needed expanding, but instead of blasting away reefs to open passages, volunteers broke off pieces and hauled the live coral to nearby sites that had been devastated decades before when the harbor was first dredged.

About 14 tons of reef was moved and nearly all survived transplantation. Ten diverse sites were chosen, then monitored to see where coral best thrived.

Among those involved in that project was Paul Jokiel, a University of Hawaii marine biologist who gave his blessing for the current relocation, and the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, both of which gave the Kaneohe venture the go-ahead.

A new participant this time was the U.S. Army's 7th Engineer Dive Team, whose members needed the training the coral-moving would supply, and whose work would save the state millions of dollars in contract work. By coincidence, the synergetic effort will replace coral at a reef damaged by a military plane more than 60 years ago.

All in all, the project benefits everyone.