Humuhumunukunukuapua'a Marathon

Dec 13, 2020 · 1 min read
running

When the 2020 Honolulu Marathon was cancelled due to COVID, we made our own. A group of us mapped out a 26.2-mile course around Honolulu, pinned on handmade bibs, and lined up at 5:14 AM in the dark on December 13th.

We named it the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a Marathon after Hawaii’s state fish, because why not.

Start line

No aid stations. No crowds. No medals. Just friends who wanted to race.

Running through Kailua with the Ko’olau Mountains

Distance: 26.2 miles Time: 3:37:43 Avg Pace: 8:17/mi Elevation Gain: ~1,300 ft Avg HR: 164 bpm

All things considered, it was a win.

Marathon Hawaii Covid
Austin Semmel
Authors
Austin Semmel
Army Officer | PhD, Operations Research
Army officer and operations researcher at the United States Military Academy. I hold a Doctor of Philosophy in Operations Research from NC State University. Using daily flight data from AH-64 Apache units, my dissertation characterized the latent decision structures and trade-offs that drive operational readiness. I developed interpretable, data-driven modeling frameworks that translate complex system behaviors into decision support tools for resource-constrained environments. I teach probability, statistics, and mathematical modeling to cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point.