Expo, schedule and race morning

Packet pickup

• Thursday, December 10, 2026: 10:00am - 6:00pm
• Friday, December 11, 2026: 9:00am - 7:00pm
• Saturday, December 12, 2026: 9:00am - 5:00pm

• Packet pickup is mandatory and there is no race-day pickup of any kind. Once the expo closes at 5:00pm Saturday, December 12, there is no further way to get a bib. Nothing is mailed.
• You must collect your own packet in person. The organizers state plainly that nobody can pick up a race pack for a friend or family member, so a spouse or training partner arriving a day ahead of you cannot cover for you.
• Bring a valid photo ID. During race week you get an email with your assigned bib number; have it on your phone or printed, because it routes you to the right pickup line and speeds things up considerably.
• Late entry registration is also handled at the expo and closes at the same 5:00pm Saturday cutoff.
• Friday is the heaviest day. Thursday's 10:00am open is the calmest window of the three, and Saturday afternoon is the worst time to gamble on a short line given the hard 5:00pm close.
• A complimentary Waikiki Trolley shuttle links several Waikiki pickup points to the convention center, running Thursday through Monday in a window of roughly 8:30am to 6:00pm depending on the day, so it does not cover the full Friday 7:00pm expo close. If you are still inside the hall late Friday, plan on your own ride back.
• Roughly 90 vendors on the floor. Budget more time than the pickup alone would suggest if you intend to shop, and do the bib line first.
• Your bib color is assigned from your predicted finish time and determines where you stand at the start, so check it when you collect your packet rather than at 4:30am on race morning.

August 2026

The published weekend schedule

This is a point-to-point race and almost everyone sleeps near the finish, not the start. The marathon and the 10K both leave Ala Moana Boulevard at the Queen Street Extension in Kakaako at 5:00am, while the finish and the entire Waikiki hotel cluster sit at the other end, by Kapiolani Park. So race morning is a commute, in the dark, roughly two to three miles from most Waikiki hotels. Three ways to solve it. The free shuttles run from the Honolulu Zoo to the start only between 2:00am and 4:00am and drop at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard, but the organizers explicitly do not guarantee a seat, so treat 3:15am as your realistic last shuttle rather than 4:00am. Being driven works only if you know the windows: Waimanu Street before 3:40am, then Pensacola/Kaimaile or Piikoi/Kapiolani Boulevard after that. Or walk it, which many Waikiki runners do and which takes 45 to 60 minutes. New security means you cannot enter the start area from in front of the start line at all; you have to come in via Piikoi Street, the back entrance off Atkinson Drive, or from the Waikiki side. There is no clothing check at the start and bag drop exists only at the finish, so anything you carry to the start you either wear for 26.2 miles or throw away. Portable toilets are at the start. There is no cutoff time, which is why the field is enormous and why the start area fills long before 5:00am. Note the expo closes for good at 5:00pm Saturday with no race-day pickup, so a Saturday-evening or Sunday-morning arrival on Oahu makes this race impossible to start.

Getting there

There is no rail near this course and no realistic transit answer for a 5 a.m. start, so plan on your feet. The race's own advice is blunt: walk or get dropped off, because there is no guarantee of space on the shuttles. A complimentary courtesy shuttle does run from the Honolulu Zoo between 2 and 4 a.m., dropping at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard, which puts you a short walk from the corrals. That window is the thing to note: it stops at 4 a.m. for a 5 a.m. start, so the shuttle is not a 4:30 a.m. option. Most people staying in Waikiki simply walk the two miles down Ala Moana Boulevard in the dark with a few thousand others, which takes 30 to 40 minutes and doubles as a warm-up. Driving yourself is a poor bet: closures cascade from 12:30 a.m. onward and tow-away enforcement starts at midnight.

• Getting to the start: the walk is the plan. From central Waikiki it is roughly 2 miles from Kalakaua to the start on Ala Moana Boulevard at the Queen Street Extension. Leave your room around 3:45 to 4:15 a.m. Fireworks launch the race at 5:00 a.m. Note that Kalakaua Avenue traffic is detoured onto Kuhio from 3:30 a.m., so the sidewalks are yours.
• Courtesy shuttle from the Honolulu Zoo, 2 to 4 a.m. Free, first-come, and explicitly not guaranteed a seat. It drops at Atkinson Drive and Ala Moana Boulevard. Useful if you are staying at the Diamond Head end and would rather not walk, but treat it as a bonus, not a booking. Be in line well before 4 a.m.
• Car drop-off: the cutoff is 3:40 a.m. Before 3:40 a.m., have your driver use Waimanu Street. After 3:40 a.m., the drop-off shifts to Pensacola at Kaimaile, or Piikoi at Kapiolani Boulevard. Anyone driving you in should also plan their exit before the Ala Moana corridor and Piikoi are fully shut.
• Parking: mostly a trap. There is limited street parking within a 4 to 6 block radius of the start, but parking is expressly prohibited at Ala Moana Shopping Center, the Ward Center theatre, and Whole Foods. Waikiki garages are the reliable option, and you park the car Saturday and leave it. Tow-away zones run from midnight to 5 p.m. Sunday, and Monsarrat from Kalakaua to Paki is signed tow-away on both sides. Do not test this.
• Bag check is at the finish, not the start. There is no clothing check at the start area at all. The clothing check-in is in Kapiolani Park in the finish area, with a Saturday drop-off window from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. So whatever you wear to the start you either run in or throw away. Plan a disposable layer and drop your real bag the day before.
• Getting back to your room after finishing. Walk. From Kapiolani Park it is a little over half a mile to the Kalakaua hotel row and under a mile to most of Waikiki, which is the entire argument for staying at the finish end. Vehicles will not help you: Monsarrat is closed until 3 p.m. and limited to tour bus pickups, Paki is closed for the duration, and the makai lanes of Kalakaua between Monsarrat and Poni Moi are not contra-flowed for two-way traffic until roughly 9 a.m. Ala Moana Boulevard reopens around 8 a.m., so if someone is collecting you, have them meet you on the Waikiki side well after that.
• If you are renting a car. Get it after the race, not before. Nearly every route you would use between the airport, downtown, Ala Moana, Waikiki, and Diamond Head is closed or contraflowed on race morning: Nimitz and Ala Moana Koko Head-bound detour at Smith Street from 2:30 a.m., King Street from 3:30 a.m., Kapiolani Boulevard from 3:30 a.m., and H-1 eastbound is routed off at the Waialae Avenue/22nd Avenue off-ramp from 3:30 a.m.
• Dinner the night before: San Paolo Pizza & Wine, 1765 Ala Moana Blvd. An Italian-Brazilian spot on the marathon's own dining list that pitches itself for exactly this, carbs before the run and celebration after. It sits on Ala Moana Boulevard between Waikiki and the start, so it is a walkable stroll from the Ala Moana or Ward hotels and a longer but flat walk from central Waikiki, and it doubles as a chance to eyeball the start-line stretch in daylight. If you are based at the Diamond Head end and do not want the walk, Hula Grill at 2335 Kalakaua and Monkeypod Kitchen at 2169 Kalia Road are on the same official list and sit inside Waikiki proper. Book ahead; the town is full.

Parking near the course endpoints

These are mapped garages near the course, not a promise of race-day access. Check closures and pre-booking rules with the organizer.

• Sheraton Waikiki & Royal Hawaiian Hotel Parking Garage17 minute modeled walk to finish

Published entry tiers

Checked 2026-08-26; fees and tiers can change.