Honolulu Marathon: The Race With No Time Limit, Born of a Cardiologist's Bet

01A cardiologist and a brand-new idea

Jack Scaff, a cardiologist based in Honolulu, believes running helps people recover from a heart attack. In the early 1970s that is only a theory. With his colleague John Wagner, he has founded a cardiac rehabilitation program at the central YMCA. In 1973 he runs the Boston Marathon to experience the event from the inside. There, at a conference of physician joggers, a colleague encourages him to start his own race in Honolulu; accounts disagree on who that was. Scaff convinces the local club, the Mid-Pacific Road Runners, to organize it with him.

02Whose idea was it? The mayor steps in

Mayor Frank Fasi promises the city's support. According to the Star-Advertiser, he also challenged the organizers to create the “Boston Marathon of the Pacific.” In 2010, with 1973 letters found in a closet as evidence, the marathon association credited the idea to the mayor, the paper reports. In 2016 the same paper ruled the other way: in its view, the archives side with Scaff.

03A first edition of 162

The race, named the Rim of the Pacific, starts on December 16, 1973. Official records count 162 entrants; newspapers at the time announced 167. In all, 151 runners cross the finish line. The winner, Duncan Macdonald, 24, a medical student and future Olympian, finishes in 2:27:34. Among the starters are two of Scaff's patients. Val Nolasco, a pianist, had a heart attack two years earlier. Ray Thiele, an airline pilot, lost his license after his. According to Hawaii Business magazine, Thiele drops out in the final mile because of blisters, then finishes Boston four months later. The federal aviation authority gives him his license back, as agreed with Scaff. Nolasco goes all the way. Last to finish, he is applauded as loudly as the winner.

04The finish line that stays open

Scaff refuses any cutoff, Spectrum News reports. The organizers still repeat it today: “It's in our DNA to have no time limit,” says Jim Barahal, president of the Honolulu Marathon Association. The gun goes off at 5 a.m., and the last finishers often arrive more than 14 hours later.

In 2019 the last two, Tomohiro Niimura (41) and Kumiko Sano (72), crossed the line together around 10:30 p.m., after about 17 hr 30 min of racing, according to the station KHON. Sano, who is the age of Niimura's mother, had come across him struggling and decided to walk with him to the end.

05Japan takes over

According to the association's statistics, no Japanese runners were among the entrants in 1973 and 1974. Their share passed one half by the late 1980s (55.5% in 1989), then approached or exceeded two-thirds in the early 1990s. In 1995, the record year at the time, 21,717 of 34,434 entrants came from Japan, or 63.1%. Japan Airlines is the big sponsor, and the race carries its name: the JAL Honolulu Marathon. Jim Barahal acknowledged it in 2013: without those Japanese runners, “the Honolulu Marathon is just a small running race.” Since the pandemic their share has shrunk: 27.9% of entrants in 2025.