Five events are scheduled on the streets around Diamond Head between November 8 and December 13, and every one of them uses the same small piece of the neighborhood. That piece is where Monsarrat Avenue, Paki Avenue and Kalākaua Avenue meet at the Diamond Head end of Kapiʻolani Park. Two of the five also run the whole loop around the crater along Diamond Head Road and Kahala Avenue. The rest stay near the park. For anyone who lives off Monsarrat or Paki, the season is a string of short event mornings at that corner, plus two Sundays when race courses cover the whole crater loop.
Five Events, One Corner
The City's Department of Transportation Services keeps a 2026 schedule of major parades and events that lists the closure window, route, and permit status for each event. The Honolulu Marathon Association posts its own race-weekend details on honolulumarathon.org. Combined, the two sources give this calendar for the rest of the year:
| Date | Event | Time | Streets near the crater | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sun., Nov. 8 | Val Nolasco Half Marathon | Roads close about 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. | Kalākaua, Monsarrat, Paki, Diamond Head Rd., Kahala Ave. | Permit submitted |
| Thu., Nov. 26 | Honolulu Marathon Clinic Turkey Trot | Starts at 7:30, 7:40 and 7:50 a.m. | Kalākaua by the Queen Kapiʻolani statue, Kapiʻolani Park loops, Triangle Park on the 5-mile course | Listed on registration page |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Street Bikers United Toys for Tots Caravan | Roads close about 10:30 a.m. to noon | Kalākaua to Monsarrat, ending at Waikīkī Shell Lots 3 and 4 | Permit submitted |
| Sat., Dec. 12 | Kalākaua Merrie Mile | 7 a.m. start | Starts on Monsarrat, finishes at Queens Beach | Scheduled |
| Sun., Dec. 13 | JAL Honolulu Marathon and Start to Park 10k | 5 a.m. start | Monsarrat, Paki, Diamond Head Rd., Kahala Ave., Kalākaua, Kapiʻolani Park finish | Scheduled |
Each route touches the Monsarrat and Kalākaua corner in some way. The Merrie Mile starts on Monsarrat. The caravan ends on Monsarrat. The Turkey Trot's 5-mile course goes around Triangle Park, which sits on that same corner. Both long races start up Monsarrat and come back to finish in Kapiʻolani Park. This was already the case in October. The City's schedule shows More Than Pink by Susan G. Komen Hawaii on October 11, with more than 3,000 runners and walkers going from the Bandstand area up Monsarrat and onto Paki before turning back along Kalākaua.
The status column matters. The City's schedule lists the half marathon and the caravan as "permit submitted," not approved, and those two are the only events on this list with City closure windows. The race pages for the other three give routes and start times, not road-closure plans. Treat every date as scheduled and check the City's events page again the week before each one.
Only Two Sundays Cover the Whole Crater Loop
Most of the dates above affect a few blocks by the park. Two of them affect the whole Diamond Head side of town.
On November 8, the Mid-Pacific Road Runner Club's Val Nolasco Half Marathon is expected to bring about 600 runners. Its route runs from the mauka side of Kapiʻolani Park up Monsarrat, onto Paki and Diamond Head Road, then out 18th Avenue, Kīlauea Avenue and Waiʻalae Avenue to Kalanianaʻole Highway. It turns around near West Hind Drive and comes back by Kealaolu Avenue, Kahala Avenue and Diamond Head Road to finish at the Bandstand. The City lists the closure window as roughly 5 a.m. to 11 a.m.
On December 13, the JAL Honolulu Marathon covers nearly the same streets at a much larger scale. The race starts at 5 a.m., and the start line closes at 5:30 a.m. The course includes Monsarrat, Paki, Diamond Head Road, Kīlauea, Kalanianaʻole Highway, Kealaolu, Kahala Avenue and Kalākaua.
The half marathon works as a smaller version of the marathon five weeks earlier. A household that finds its way out of the neighborhood on November 8 will already know which side streets connect to what when December 13 arrives.
The Marathon Takes Up the Whole Weekend
The December 13 race is the last stage of a multi-day event, and its quieter parts land closer to Diamond Head homes than most people expect.
- Thursday, Dec. 10 through Saturday, Dec. 12. The expo and packet pickup run at the Hawaiʻi Convention Center: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 7 a.m. The Kalākaua Merrie Mile starts on Monsarrat Avenue, runs west on Kalākaua to a turnaround by Kaʻiulani Avenue and finishes at Queens Beach near the Monsarrat and Kalākaua intersection.
- Sunday, Dec. 13, 5 a.m. The marathon and the Start to Park 10k start together. The 10k follows the marathon's first 10 kilometers and finishes in Kapiʻolani Park. The marathon's FAQ calls it a non-competitive fun run and walk.
- Sunday afternoon. According to the marathon's finish-area page, the finish line stays open until the last runner arrives. Runners leave the park on the mountain side of the Waikīkī Shell lot, and there is no exit by the finish line.
That last point matters most to people who live nearby. The finish line has no fixed closing time, and the exit runners use sits at the Waikīkī Shell lot, the same lot the Toys for Tots caravan uses a week earlier off Monsarrat. On December 13, the area around this post's corner hosts the start of the race before dawn and the way out of the park for finishers after it.
The marathon's traffic advisory page was still linking to last year's advisory in late October. The 2025 version listed closures or traffic controls on Monsarrat, Paki, Diamond Head Road, Kahala Avenue, Kalanianaʻole Highway and Kalākaua. Use it only as a sense of how widespread the closures were last year. Its times are not the 2026 plan, and the 2026 advisory belongs on the calendar once it is posted.
The Shorter Closures In Between
The other three dates are smaller, and each one happens at a different time of day.
The Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning is the Honolulu Marathon Clinic's event. According to its registration page, the in-person distances start at 7:30, 7:40 and 7:50 a.m. All courses start and finish on Kalākaua by the Queen Kapiʻolani statue. The 5-miler goes around Kapiʻolani Park and around Triangle Park, the 3.6-mile course circles Kapiʻolani Park twice, and the 1.8-mile family run and walk circles it once. None of them climbs toward the lighthouse.
The Toys for Tots Caravan on December 6 runs late in the morning. The City lists roads closing around 10:30 a.m. and reopening around noon for an expected 4,000 motorcycles. They ride from Magic Island along Ala Moana Boulevard and Kalākaua, then up Monsarrat to Waikīkī Shell Lots 3 and 4. A runner can finish an early loop around the crater well before the caravan arrives. A trip to the Monsarrat end of the park just before lunch is likely to run into it.
The Kalākaua Merrie Mile on December 12 takes just one mile of road, but it starts at 7 a.m. on the same Saturday the marathon's expo is running. That puts race-weekend traffic on Monsarrat a full day before the marathon itself.
Two New Reasons to Be on Monsarrat Without a Car
The race calendar happens to line up with two openings on the same street this fall.
Aloha State Daily reported that Aliʻi Coffee Co. opened on September 1 at 3045 Monsarrat Avenue, in the space where Gecko Girlz used to be. The same report gave soft-opening hours of 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily and said the owner expected to expand them later. A 7 a.m. opening lines up with the Merrie Mile start and the Turkey Trot's first wave. Hours often change after a soft opening, so check the current hours before planning around them.
Farther up the street, Diamond Head Market & Grill opened a shave-ice stand at the Monsarrat and Campbell corner in early September. Aloha State Daily described house-made flavors tied to local farms. The stand is at 3158 Monsarrat Avenue and was listed as open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. On November 8, the City expects the half marathon's roads to reopen at about 11 a.m., the same time the stand opens.
The two shops sit on the street that every one of these events uses. On race days, people who can reach them on foot will have the easiest time getting there.
The Crater Keeps Its Regular Hours
Diamond Head State Monument itself is on a steady schedule. The Department of Land and Natural Resources lists daily hours of 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., with last entry at 4:30 p.m. Hawaiʻi residents with a Hawaiʻi ID or driver's license get in free and pay no parking fee. Nonresidents need entry and parking reservations, at $5 for admission and $10 for parking a noncommercial vehicle. The park page showed no special notice for marathon day. Even so, the gate opens an hour after the 5 a.m. start, and the marathon course runs along Diamond Head Road outside the crater. Plan a December 13 hike around the 2026 traffic advisory once it is posted, since getting to the gate that morning depends on the race more than on the park's hours.
If December 13 has you thinking about how a Monsarrat or Paki address works the rest of the year, or a condo near the park whose lanai looks out over the finish line, Team Hawaii knows these blocks on race day and on every other day. Let's Connect.
