The course has changed several times in its history, but never as much as it's changing for this year's race—except, of course, when the race moved from Oahu to the Big Island in 1981. What motivated the change? The Kona Surf Hotel––the traditional bike-to-run transition—closed its doors. Without its parking lot available for T2, the organizers needed to look for an alternative. They found it at the old airport, just north of town.

This part of the course hasn't changed, but one of the early alternatives under consideration was routing the swim around the point and into the harbor, finishing and transitioning at what would have been the race's single transition area. But that idea got nixed, and the traditional swim route returns.

One wrinkle to the swim course has been discussed off and on, and it's the idea of having separate men's and women's starts—not separate waves, but side by side starts. This will probably eventually happen, as there is no reason not to allow the women a separate "lane," much as they have in the larger marathons where women and men run on either side of a large, separated thoroughfare for the first several miles. Many or most of the women would prefer a start distinct from the men, with a confluence after the first half-mile. But that change has not yet been made.

Big changes to the course. Without the final six-mile run down Alii Drive to the Kona Surf that distance had to be made up. One thought was to run the cyclists past Hawi to make up the distance, but instead the extra distance is made up in and around Kailua-Kona.

After exiting the swim the riders make their way up to the Queen K Highway, but instead of turning left, they turn right and head toward town. Riders then descend Pay 'n Save hill, the106-mile point on the run into town on the old bike course. Instead of making the turn down to Alii Drive for the final few miles south of town, though, the riders continue south on Kuakini Highway. This road climbs in a stair-step fashion up to the Queen K. The riders will then flip a U-turn and head north to Hawi. This extra juke through town makes up the six miles lost by not going to the Kona Surf.

The new course should be about equivalent to the old in terms of difficulty. Kuakini Highway is an added hill early in the ride, but in terms of total elevation it counteracts the loss of the final hill at Keauhou Bay with one mile to go in the cycling leg. Kuakini may be a longer climb, and slightly greater in total elevation gain, but the Keauhou climb was steep and––with the ride basically over––came at a difficult time. Most long-time watchers of this race feel the bike course times should be about the same as they've historically been.

This is where the course may be slightly easier. In previous years runners had to immediately climb out of the Kona Surf's parking lot then descend into "the pit" for an out-and-back that required again climbing up to the plateau. On the old course, then, the first three or four miles were hotter and hillier than on the new course, and that is replaced with an out-and-back on flattish Alii Drive. The run exits the old airport and immediately heads south on Kuakini Highway. Runners travel through town and traverse down to Alii Drive before Kuakini starts its stair-step climb. The only hill runners will find on Alii is the modest rise which peaks at the Royal Seacliff Resort.

The run U-turns at approximately the Magic Sands beach. At this point––roughly the seven-mile mark––the course is exactly the same as the old run course.

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