The Honolulu Marathon course

Ala Moana Boulevard in the dark, a wide start that takes a while to sort itself out. It is dead flat, which makes it very easy to spend money here that you will want back at Diamond Head.

Nimitz Highway and South King Street carry you through downtown past First Hawaiian Center, the tallest thing on the course. The road tilts up a fraction, barely enough to notice.

Wide lanes on Kapiolani Boulevard give back the small rise from downtown. Clean footing, nothing to manage, just settle the rhythm.

Piikoi Street swings you back toward the water and onto Ala Moana Boulevard. Level ground, and the last of the city before Waikiki.

Past the Ilikai and onto Kalākaua Avenue. Flat again, and the point where the course stops feeling like a commute.

Kalākaua through Waikiki, the Moana Surfrider going by, then the bend toward Monsarrat Avenue. Still flat, still fast, and the climb is already in front of you.

Paki Avenue and the turn up Monsarrat. The road begins to rise here but gives up very little of its total, so treat this as the on ramp rather than the hill.

The steepest sustained work of the day, a hundred feet of climbing onto Diamond Head Road. Shorten the stride and run the effort, not the pace.

Diamond Head Road along the ocean side of the crater. The grade goes quiet after the climb, so use it to get your breathing back before the road drops.

Off the ridge on 18th Avenue and Kilauea, the biggest descent so far. Free speed if you land light, and the mile that shows up in your quads at 24 if you do not.

Kilauea onto Waialae Avenue, flat and residential. A good place to take stock, because the highway ahead is long and open.

Kalanianaʻole Highway begins, running gently downhill. Easy running, and the sun starts finding you out here.

Kalanianaʻole again, essentially level. Highway shoulder, long view, half marathon mark coming up.

Halfway, still on the highway. Whatever the clock says right now, the back half is where this course asks its real questions.

More of the same road, and the same flat grade. Nothing to do but hold form and stay patient.

Hawai'i Kai Drive peels off the highway for the loop through the neighborhood. The grade barely moves; this is the far end of the course.

Keahole Street works you back out of Hawai'i Kai on flat ground. First mile of the day that is genuinely pointed home.

Back onto Kalanianaʻole Highway heading west. Level road, and the mileage starts to feel like mileage.

Nineteen looks exactly like eighteen: flat highway, long sightlines, no landmarks to tick off. Break it into pieces if that helps.

Twenty on the highway, and the scenery has not changed in six miles. Run the mile you are in and leave the arithmetic alone.

West Hind Drive interrupts the highway briefly. Still flat, but the climbing restarts soon and you want something in reserve.

Coming off the highway toward Kealaolu Avenue, the road turns upward for the first time in a long while. It is a modest rise that will not feel modest.

Kealaolu into Kahala Avenue, quiet and tree lined, and the road drops. Take the free speed, because the last climb starts before this mile is over.

The second Diamond Head climb, 104 feet of it, the same as the first one but with 23 miles already in your legs. Pick a cadence you can hold and stop looking at your watch.

The last of the climb crests partway through on Diamond Head Road, and what follows still tips slightly upward. Hold the effort until the road clearly falls away.

Over the top and down Diamond Head Road onto Kalākaua, the steepest descending mile on the course, into Kapiolani Park. Let gravity carry it and save anything left for the last few hundred meters.