Two of the fastest marathon courses on earth, two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
Two warm-weather American marathons with very different personalities. Honolulu is an out-and-back along Waikiki and Diamond Head with no time limit and open registration, a famously relaxed, tourist-friendly race with a 2:07:59 course record. Los Angeles is a point-to-point tour of the city with considerably more elevation change (290m of gain against Honolulu's 141m) and a 2:06:35 course record.
Honolulu runs in December in tropical warmth; Los Angeles' course threads through Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Downtown LA with more genuine hills to manage. If a laid-back, no-pressure race in the tropics is the goal, Honolulu is built for exactly that; if you want a proper American city tour with real elevation, LA is the tougher, more varied test.