Big Island Marathon

Course & Elevation

The Big Island International Marathon, also known as the Hilo Marathon, is a road race in Hilo on Hawaii's east coast, held on a Sunday in mid-March by the Big Island International Marathon Association. The marathon is two out-and-backs that start and finish at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel on Banyan Drive, with the course following what the organisers call the old coast of the Big Island. The organisers give the elevation gain as about 800 feet on the upper out-and-back and about 10 feet on the lower one. The marathon starts at 6:00am, with a half marathon at 6:15am, a 10K, a 5K and a two-mile walk on the same day; the course closes at 1:00pm. Packet pick-up and the expo are at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel the day before. The current race was first run in 1997, when the winner was Michael Georgi of Honolulu in 2:41:15, and the 2027 edition is billed as the 30th running. It replaced an earlier Hilo Marathon that ran from 1975 to 1987 and used a double out-and-back loop between the bayfront and Richardson Beach Park. The course has been measured and USATF-certified since 1997, which makes it a Boston Marathon qualifier.