50 States

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Maui or Kona? (Read 13 times)

DeathRunnr


That Death Thingy

    I thought I'd ask the "experts", since so many of you have done a lot of races all over the country!

     

    I have 4 states done, but this is the year that I made the decision to do all 50 states. So, I want to start my new goal with a beautiful marathon. Hawaii seems perfect! I plan on doing a marathon in HI in early 2013 (can't do this year, since I'm already signed up for Ironman AZ which will suck up all my time for the next 5 months).

     

    I'm torn between the Maui Oceanfront Marathon in Maui, and the Hilo Marathon in Kona. Which one do you guys think is better?

     

    Here are some pros and cons to my dilemma:

     

    *I've been to Maui and Oahu, but never Kona

    *I would LOVE to go to the Volcano National Park while in Kona

    *I remember how much I loved Maui and always wanted to go back (it's been almost 20 years since I've been there!)

    *Doing Hilo (in March) would give me extra recovery time after Ironman AZ

    *Maui (in January) might be a little too soon for a marathon after Ironman AZ

    *Hilo looks as if it ALWAYS rains, so it would be a warm, wet, rainy 26.2 miles

    *Both courses look incredibly beautiful

     

    I'm sure some of you very experienced runners have done one or both of these races. How do they compare? Is one better than the other? Which one would you recommend?

     

    Maybe I should just flip a coin Cool