The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon is one of the most beautiful marathon venues on Earth. And if stunning scenery wasn’t enough, Hawaiian culture shines throughout with a traditional blessing, chant, and hula at the start line followed by Taiko drumming and hula dancers along the course. Since the inaugural event in 2009, Race Director Robin Jumper estimates the cumulative economic impact of the event has exceeded $50 million thanks to the thousands of racers who register each year, roughly half of whom travel from the mainland U.S. or other countries to participate.
Behind the idyllic setting, however, Robin and her team were facing a familiar challenge. Their registration platform worked, but it didn’t give them the marketing tools they needed to grow.
Registration + Reach
Luckily, they found athleteReg. athleteReg provided the solid registration platform they needed, but it went far beyond just registration.
“We especially love the added marketing value components like seamless promo integrations, email tools, and upselling options for merchandise, which have helped boost engagement and revenue.”
As part of the Outside family of brands, running the event on athleteReg also opened the door for The Kauai Marathon to reach hundreds of thousands of runners across Outside publications like RUN, Women’s Running, and Trail Runner.
Ease of Use for Everyone
Robin also pointed out how everyone – runners and staff alike – have appreciated how user-friendly the athleteReg interface is.
“The platform is incredibly easy to use for both our team and participants, with intuitive setup and management tools that saved us time right from the start. Most importantly, our runners find it super user-friendly, with a smooth registration process that makes signing up for our race in paradise even more enjoyable. It’s been a huge hit all around.”
One of the things that gave Robin the confidence to switch was meeting Patrick Sullivan from the athleteReg support team and seeing how knowledgeable and responsive he was to her needs.
After a seamless launch, she’s been surprised how little she’s needed his support. She has been able to easily add merchandise, highlight sponsors, monitor payment history, create coupons, add additional users, check registration stats, and more, all on her own.
Big Results
With still six months to go before this year’s event, the results are clear.
“We switched to RunReg for our registration platform starting in November 2025, and it’s been a game-changer for The Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon. Since we switched platforms, we are currently up 211 registrations over 2025 and $21,000 in revenue. We highly recommend RunReg for any event looking for a reliable, feature-rich solution!”
The team behind the Kauai Marathon and Half Marathon needed more than just registration, they needed registration that allowed them to reach new runners and grow their event.
With athleteReg, that’s exactly what they have.
Learn more about Kauai Marathon & Half Marathon.
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