Kona Marathon

Last Sunday (6/19/05) the Kona Marathon and Half Marathon were held on the Big Island of Hawaii. It's a small event with each race having around 650 runners.

One interesting stat for this marathon was that there were twice the number of women runners as men (420 to 202 ratio of 2.08). Perhaps too many men wanted to relax on Father's Day. A similar ratio also occurred for the half (485 to 182). Although for the half marathons, it's common to have more women.

Looks like men are gaining ground however. Looking back at the 2004 race, there were 539 women vs. 187 men in the full marathon (2.88 ratio). In 2003, there were 946 women and 356 men (2.66). Also, there seems to be a significant downturn in the turnout for the marathon: 1302 in 2003, 726 in 2004, and 622 in 2005. Perhaps fewer runners are taking Hawaii vacations.