Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Honoruru marathon

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Honoruru marathon

    as Seinfeld would have it;
    "what's the deal with this Honolulu marathon?!"
    22 thousand people converge on our fair city just to clog our highways and streets, all of Honolulu shut down for one day, thousands of people can't get to and from their destinations... hiway traffic creepin along at 4 miles an hour.

    It seems to be another bizarre cultish kinda thing that is slowly being ingrained into our lives to such a degree that we will accept it and all it's inconveniences.
    And it IS bizarre:
    at 5:30 am.
    On Sunday morning no less!
    You can witness scores of people sitting on lawnchairs on the sidewalk. or on walls or standing around in evergrowing crowds on the sidelines. While they watch the strange spectacle of:
    People jogging by, (yes. at 5:30 am. Sunday. and all day. for 26 miles.) and the watchers whap their palms together in rapid sucession creating loud noise. If they had whips or cattle prods, I suppose they would use them. "Hiyo, C'mon, git! Move it on, bowah!"

    a few months ago, I was trying to get to an appointment one Sunday in Waikiki. I could NOT traverse the city. Cops every where directing traffic through little alleyways, just to get one block near my destination, only to be turned around completely and told to head outta Waikiki, a trip of a mile or so that i spent one hour or so performing...
    I, of course considered the reaction of tourists visiting Waikiki... and of employees and general workers of waikiki. As well as the non possibility of emergency vehicles attempting to get thru this travesty... Asked one cop whazzup?
    She said its the "Try athalon"
    (I suppose "athalon" means; piss off every resident of Honolulu.)

    I looked around at the confusion and mess and asked her; "don't you think this is an incredibly stupid mess? meant to simply stroke the mayor's ego? another one o' his whims and toys at the expense of the citizenry?
    She did look frustrated at the whole thing and in agreement but verbally had to remain non-committal; "Phone the mayor hotline if ya wanna voice yer opinion..."

    OK, so the marathon; Asked a few citizens what da hellizthisthing?!"

    they said it is for a good cause.
    OK. Fair enuff. What cause?
    they didn't know.
    Sponsored by JAL, it looks like a mass forced interactive commercial product placement thing.
    So, I revert to a sometimes trusted source of "news" the Advertiser. ("Mission: to be diligent, truthful, accurate and fair") This morning; the "news" paper tells of the marathon. But not the whole story. duh course not. It didn't tell of what happened all thru honolulu as a result of the marathon.
    It did not tell what the marathon accomplished. It did not tell what good cause or causes the marathon supports or brings attention to. For that matter, neither did the marathon web site itself!
    Just a few stories of who ran and what condition their knees were or that they jogged with their cousin from Arkansas.
    I assumed wrongly the newspapers' mission was to give us the complete news, but suppose not.
    as an aside, i will mention:
    Once one of the two dailies claimed their motto or mission statement was to always offer the truth. Which of course begs the response; No, the truth is subjective. However, you can offer the facts, if ya care to. This we want!
    The advertiser mentioned many ran to raise awareness. Of what? that is anyone's guess. maybe awareness of Japan Airlines' generosity to offer runners mcdonalds cups of water and soaked sponges while they plod the course.
    There was mention of a guy running the event barefeet dressed as they did in ancient Hawaii. Now that is cool. this was cultural awareness, and i applaud his action. It was Lopaka Loke I believe.
    My question; A marathon is a foot race event run on an open course. This course, of course was anything BUT open. It was completely closed off. To the chagrin of everyone else not involved with the event. Here's an idea. Do a real marathon. This means an open course. Where is this mythical "open course"?
    Try the country. North shore. Hiway going to Waialua. Middle of the island. Road to Makaha. Anywhere but a closed up, "not open course" congested city that does not need any more congestion. that is not an open course.
    And, I'm spent!
    Last edited by kimo55; December 13, 2004, 08:42 AM.

  • #2
    Re: Honoruru marathon

    How far afield will we see Hawaii get in its priorities, until there is some sort of rebellion?
    We hang up much of Honolulu with a marathon; thousand are inconvenienced and held hostage away from their homes and jobs. The Honolulu Advertiser justifies this by saying it made millions (86 million generated by last year's marathon) for Waikiki businesses while the participants were here. (they tell us, in their "diligent, truthful, accurate and fair" reporting style; "yea a few were stuck at home but the event is bigger than that...")
    They also fairly, truthfully, accurately refer to the travesty as " '04 marathon was a gold mine" which is jezzabout rite; with a gold mine, the many slave away to reap the benefits for the very few....

    Some officials say most participants bring one to three people. How would they know this?
    This is all a wash, because the time most of all Honolulu is sitting at a standstill, stranded, money is not being spent by these selfsame captives.
    Others have observed:
    It is the usual story with the usual suspect; Waikiki wins while we citizens lose.

    and this is weird;
    The Advertiser tells us:
    Females in the marathon outnumbered the males by 4 to 1.
    BUT: at the same time, they report: 52.8 percent of the marathon participants were males.

    OK, now if some figures are off. (an I would call these last figures quite off) everything else reported about this thing is very suspect.
    Last edited by kimo55; December 21, 2004, 08:49 AM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Honoruru marathon

      Kimo, be grateful the run was on a Sunday. We have all kinds of marathons and bikeathons up here too (usually on a Saturday or Sunday morning), many of them in the middle of town. Sometimes it ties up whole sections of the freeway, but we adjust, as in, we don't go within 10 miles of where the event is happening.

      Granted, in Honolulu that would be a little harder to do...10 miles out of Waikiki would put you where? In Aiea? but with advance planning, most people aren't too inconvenienced by such events.

      Miulang
      "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Honoruru marathon

        WTF? I thought this thread title was called the "Honolulu Marathon" and not "Honoruru Marathon".
        How'd I get so white and nerdy?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Honoruru marathon

          Originally posted by Miulang
          but with advance planning, most people aren't too inconvenienced by such events.

          Miulang

          trouble is, they spring it upon us suddenly. not too much advance publicity for the advance planning.
          and, No, I don't wanna haveta remember every year at this time they pull this on us.
          Last edited by kimo55; December 21, 2004, 09:38 AM.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Honoruru marathon

            Originally posted by adri1456
            WTF? I thought this thread title was called the "Honolulu Marathon" and not "Honoruru Marathon".


            are you just trying to uptick your posts quotient here!?

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Honoruru marathon

              Originally posted by kimo55
              trouble is, they spring it upon us suddenly. not too much advance publicity for the advance planning.
              and, No, I don't wanna haveta remember every year at this time they pull this on us.
              If the Honolulu Marathon is that institutionalized, then it's time for the sponsors to start advertising the event well in advance of it so people like you can decide if you want to be inconvenienced by it or not.

              Miulang
              "Americans believe in three freedoms. Freedom of speech; freedom of religion; and the freedom to deny the other two to folks they don`t like.” --Mark Twain

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Honoruru marathon

                C'mon. This is about the 25th year in a row this event has been held, mostly along the exact same route. It's hardly new. Granted you have to read the sports pages to learn the exact date, but hey...when you get your 2005 calendar mark the second week in December as Marathon Sunday.

                My goodness.
                http://www.linkmeister.com/wordpress/

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Honoruru marathon

                  Originally posted by Linkmeister
                  C'mon. This is about the 25th year in a row this event has been held, mostly along the exact same route.

                  My goodness.

                  Mine too.


                  can I help it if much of those 2 and one half decades were spend nort' shore and windward side?

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X