The 35th running of the Honolulu Marathon will take place Sunday.

The race generates millions of dollars for Hawaii's economy, but runners are not thinking about money. They are wondering if our recent wet and windy weather will surface again on race day.

The Marathon Expo at the Hawaii convention Center opened Wednesday and continues through Saturday.

Merchants are selling running apparel and just about everything else race related at the expo. But they are not the only ones who make money from the marathon. The entire state cashes in.

"The marathon generated about $101 million last year in economic impact and I expect the same again this year. Maybe even a little more because the dollar has dropped in value. The yen is up, the euro is up, so those folks coming from Japan as well as those coming Europe are going to be spending the same number of euros or the same number of yen, but the value is going to be much higher," said Jerry Agrusa, a professor at Hawaii Pacific University who has done a study on the economic impact of the marathon.

About 28,500 runners have registered for the race. About 18,000 of them are from Japan. Of the 18,000 Japanese runners, about half are visiting Hawaii for the first time.

The race is a great opportunity for Hawaii to showcase itself as a visitor destination. Unfortunately, there has been heavy rain and strong wind leading up to the race.

"I think the weather is a bigger problem for the pre-race. For all the events and people come from out of town and from out of the countries and want to have a great time in Hawaii and it's raining all the time and it's not great weather to have fun, but you know what, it's pretty good running weather," said marathon president Jim Barahal.

Several "running legends" who were singing autographs at the expo Thursday told KGMB9 runners shouldn't worry too much about the weather on race day.

"It's natural to get nervous right before the race. Everybody freaks out, as you put it, and the whole point is to take that nervousness - hold it in check and then wait for the starter's gun. Once it goes off, even if it's raining, you won't notice the rain," said 1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist Frank Shorter.

"Find someone if there's wind to tuck behind when your running. Let them break the wind for you. If you're running and your running in the rain, everybody else is too," said Jim Ryun, former world record holder in the mile. "Everybody has a certain amount of pain they go through, but you chose to do this, and enjoy the moment while your there, because once it's over it's over."

Ryun, Shorter and former marathon world record holder Alberto Salazar will be back at the convention center signing autographs Friday between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

The race itself begins Sunday at 5 a.m.

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