About Us

The Honolulu Marathon Clinic offers this guarantee:
If you can walk, even if you have never run a step, you can train for and finish a marathon!

Initially, the concept of training neophytes to train for and complete a marathon came from Dr. Jack H. Scaff‘s, Jr. ground-breaking research in helping recovering cardiac patients get back to a productive life. Nearly four decades ago patients were encouraged to “take it easy.” Dr. Scaff knew the derogatory impact that inactivity had on patient’s health and well-being. In fact, in a tremendous advancement for medicine, one of Dr. Scaff’s patients was the first American cardiac patient to complete a marathon. Soon he began teaching “average” athletes to complete a marathon.

Now believe it or not, the Honolulu Marathon Clinic has successfully trained patients with organ transplants, cancer survivors and even an individual in his 70s who is on dialysis!

Since 1974, from March until December, nearly every Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m., Dr. Scaff and the dedicated Honolulu Marathon Clinic volunteers have trained tens of thousands of beginning runners through their maiden marathon.

“The Honolulu Marathon Clinic has made it possible for middle‑aged, sedentary, non‑running people to learn how to compete in a marathon without being intimidated by the elite.”

Our unique, yet deceptively simple, program enables everyone who can walk, and some who can’t (some of our participants have been in wheelchairs), no matter their shape and size, their age, (from 7 to more than 80), or their station in life, to complete the marathon, all 26.2 miles of it. Resume writing