The U.S. economy has tanked, Boston's hotel charges run notoriously high, but never mind. We're talking Boston Marathon.

And 52 Hawai'i residents — a near record — have signed up for the event's 113th running Monday, Patriot's Day in Massachusetts.

The overall field has grown from just 15 in the initial running in 1897 to 25,000 today — a limit dictated in part by the narrowness of the roadway in early miles.

That size puts Boston well below counts at the New York, Berlin, London and Chicago marathons. Prestige is another matter. Besides ranking as the oldest "modern" marathon, only Boston requires each entrant to meet or beat a qualifying time, based on age and sex.

Qualifying times range from 3 hours, 10 minutes (for a male aged 18 to 34) to 5 hours, 30 minutes (for a female 80 or older).

The point-to-point course starts in rural Hopkinton and proceeds 26.2 miles eastward through eight towns and cities to historic Copley Square in downtown Boston. Crowds along the way have been estimated to total 500,000 to 1 million people, all enjoying the state holiday.

Among the Hawai'i contingent, Angela Kwong's story stands out as dramatizing the Boston Marathon's powerful pull.

Kwong, 45, a pharmaceutical representative for Pfizer Inc., and a Kane'ohe resident, will be doing her first Boston.

"It took me four Honolulu Marathons to qualify. In the first three, I was within 2 to 4 minutes of qualifying.

"Then last December I was running smoothly the whole way, until 50 yards or so before the finish. My legs just gave in and I dropped to the road.

"I could see the big clock ticking ahead but couldn't make out the time. And I wasn't wearing a watch.

"I tried getting up but my legs were like Jell-O. So I started crawling — and did so for at least 5 minutes. A few runners tried to help me but I told them just to keep going, not to worry.

"Finally, after six or seven tries and 5 minutes had gone by, I stood without dropping. I started running toward the big clock. People were cheering and clapping."

She crossed the finish line in 3 hours, 44 minutes, 59 seconds. Remarkably, that was 15 minutes ahead of the qualifying limit for women 45-49.

Her goal for Monday's Boston run? To do 3 hours, 38 minutes. Her boyfriend, a commander in the Navy, tells her she should run "just to enjoy." But to Kwong, "having fun is to set a goal and try to achieve it.

"I think he's just jealous because he didn't do a qualifying time."

Hawai'i's entrants range in age from 19 — Barret Schlegelmilch, a collegian from Hilo, doing his first Boston — to 65-year-old John Ishikawa, doing his third Boston in three years.

RETURNEES

The returnees include Hawai'i's top male and female Boston performers last year:

DAVID EAGAR of Mililani, a 49-year-old construction company owner, who will be doing his sixth Boston in six years. He posted a personal best of 2 hours, 50 minutes last year, beating famed cyclist (turned runner) Lance Armstrong by 58 seconds. Says Eagar: "I have no goal this year. I'm not in that good condition. I keep going back because of the great honor to run the same race that the world's best have run."

BELINDA "BEL" WRAY, 31, of 'Aiea, a Navy petty officer first class (in information technology), was Hawai'i's No. 1 female finisher last year in 3 hours, 13 minutes. "That was only my second marathon," she says. "I feel fortunate to have qualified in my first marathon — in Honolulu 2007. At the time, I didn't know the qualifying times for Boston and wasn't even trying to qualify. I just wanted to survive the race."

FIRST-TIMERS

GEORGIANE SENDA, 57, who tried several times without success to qualify in the 50-54 age group — in Honolulu, Maui and Las Vegas. "So then I decided to 'age up.' " In 2007, in the 55-59 age group, she did the City of Trees Marathon in Boise, Idaho, particularly memorable "because my parents were there." In Boston her rooters will include her husband, two sisters and a niece. She has a simple goal — "to finish with a smile."

EFRAIM MANZANO, 45, a cook at the Westin Moana Surfrider in Waikiki, will do Boston as just his third marathon anywhere. He has done two in Honolulu. In 2007, he did it in 3:44 — 14 minutes slower than Boston's qualifying time for his age group. Feeling the challenge, he came back in 2008 to zoom to 3:16. Manzano, who came to Hawai'i 33 years ago from the Philippines, has drawn laughs in Honolulu wearing the traditional baag, a loincloth "which undeniably exposes my cheeks." No matter, he plans to wear his baag in Boston — and to wear Crocs as his footwear. Running shoes, he says, "look awkward with the baag."

CLIFFORD LAU and MARK ZEN, although they went to medical school together (University of Hawai'i), only three years ago got together to become running companions — with the goal of doing Boston.

Lau, 54, qualified first — on his third try — after just missing in Honolulu (2006) and Maui (2007). His Honolulu 2007 time of 3:35 did the trick. Zen, 55, qualified at the Eugene (Ore.) marathon in the spring of 2008, in 3:43.

Will there be friendly competition in Boston between the two doctors? Lau, given to pithiness, responds: "Of course."

Lau, wearing a lower running number, will be placed in a corral ahead Zen at the start. But since 2006, when Boston switched to a two-wave start, it's the start-line-to-finish-line "net" time that establishes order of finish. (A "chip" device affixed to each runner's shoelaces allows the recording of net times.)

BARRET SCHLEGELMILCH, the 19-year-old, already has done seven marathons and two ultramarathons (including the 50-mile Le Grizz in Montana). He qualified for Boston in 3:10-plus at the Seattle Marathon last November.

In Boston, "I'd love to beat my qualifying time," he says. "But I know that just toeing the starting line will be a major goal achieved."

Born in Brussels (of Navy parents working at NATO), Schlegelmilch has called Hilo home for the last eight years. He is now a student/NROTC midshipman at UCLA. His mother, Annette, has done seven marathons. Despite a serious 2007 skiing accident in Canada (leg broken in several places by an out-of-control skier), "she hopes to qualify for Boston soon and run it with me," Barret says.

STEPHEN WILLIAMS, Hawai'i's third oldest entrant at 62, qualified in the first marathon he ever ran — last Dec. 14 in Honolulu. The time he needed to qualify? Four hours flat or faster. Piece of cake. He beat it by 52 seconds — in 3:59:08.

Boston is famous for its unpredictable April weather. Again, for Williams that's not a concern. Honolulu '08, his qualifying run, was marked by intermittent heavy rains, as was his Niketown 30K last fall. "I'd have to say I only know how to run in monsoon conditions."

His Boston goal? "I would have liked to try for 3 1/2 hours but have lost too many weeks to injury. I just want to enjoy the event and 'feel' the course — for next time." Williams is a semiretired shiatsu healthcare practitioner from Honolulu.

MORE RETURNEES

CARLOS FUENTES, 55, concierge at The Fairmont Orchid Hawai'i-Mauna Lani on the Big Island, will be doing his fifth Boston. What keeps him coming back? "It has to be the amazing energy of the spectators. The Wellesley College women (screaming nonstop at about the halfway mark) come to mind," he says. Fuentes has done 57 marathons overall, including Athens, the cradle of long-distance running. Loyal to his home state, he ranks Honolulu as his favorite marathon. "After so many years, it feels like home." Also, Honolulu is where he did his personal best — 2:51 back in the '80s.

SARAH SLAY, 40, of Kailua, senior director/payroll at Hawaiian Airlines, will be doing her fifth or sixth Boston (she's not sure of the count). Her Boston best was 3:10 in 2001. And although her personal best anywhere — 3:09 — came at the New York City Marathon, she ranks Boston as her favorite. "The crowds make it a great race. I grew up going to Cape Cod in the summer. Just being able to go back and run and have the crowds cheer you on is awesome."

MICHAEL HRYNEVYCH, 44, of the Big Island, has been perhaps the busiest marathoner of any of Hawai'i's Boston entrants — an average of six a year for the last three years. He is an Australian citizen employed as an optics engineer/scientist at the Keck Observatory.

"Boston is an iconic event. Every participant you meet has earned the right to be there," he says.

A special Boston memory came in 2007, the year he did his Boston best.

Just at the start of the famed "Heartbreak Hill" in mile 21 he glanced to his right and spotted Big Island runner Rani Tanimoto. Barely a week earlier he had dueled her in a Big Island 10K race at home. "I paced with her within reasonable proximity thinking I wouldn't be noticed. At the top she recognized me and all of a sudden it was, RACE ON.

"We ran our hearts out in those final six miles into Boston into the oncoming storm. There was no time to consider things like 'The Wall.' Tanimoto, then 31 years old, won the duel, pulling away in the final mile. She would have won anyway, actually, because she had started the race in a corral behind Hrynevych, giving her a "chip" time advantage. The record shows Hrynevych's 2007 net time at 3:11:23, Tanimoto's at 3:09:51.

ERIC NEILSEN, 43, another Big Islander, also ran Boston 2007 and beat both Tanimoto and Hrynevych. His time was 2:56:08, a personal best for Boston. (To illustrate how tough the competition: Neilsen's sub-3 hour time ranked him "only" 115th among 586 men aged 40 to 49.) His goal this year will be another sub-3 — "that's always a goal" — and also "to enjoy time with friends meeting me there. That will include some good chowder, beer, Boston cream pie and Legal Sea Foods for dinner after the race." Neilsen and his wife run a company called Aquatic Edge, traveling the world to teach swimmers and triathletes of all ages and abilities "how to swim faster with less effort."

ALAN RYAN, 38, of Laupahoehoe, is still another Boston '09 entrant to have set a Boston best in the stormy conditions of 2007. His time was 3:03:33. His recollection of Heartbreak Hill focuses on the fresh chill he felt as the descent into Boston began. "It was 39 degrees in Boston vs. 43 degrees at the start. After the finish, the wind was really blowing between the tall buildings. It would have been nice to enjoy the post-race euphoria a little more." Ryan is a mechanical engineer at the Joint Astronomy Centre in Hilo.

JOHNNY LANDEZA, 46, of 'Aiea also remembers Boston '07 well — and the weather. In fact it's the only Boston he has done. "I wore the most clothes I have ever worn for any run — tights, shorts, two long-sleeved shirts, a disposable jacket that I never disposed of, gloves and a head band." His finishing time was 3:27. This year "at the very least I would like to run sub-3:30. I just hope for decent weather and good fun time." Landeza is an Army contractor at Schofield Barracks, working for Hawaii 5-0 Technology Services. He has run 52 marathons or "ultras" (longer than marathons) in five states. He decided to do Boston '09 because his friend MARK ESSENBERG, 43, of Honolulu will deploy this year to the Middle East "and wanted some of us to run Boston with him."

JOHN ISHIKAWA, the 65-year-old senior member of the Hawai'i contingent, came close to breaking 4 hours in Boston 2007 — 4 hours and 2 seconds. Last year in Honolulu he recorded 4:02:58. His obvious challenge: a sub-4 performance in Boston 2009.

ONE MISSING

Actually there were 53 Hawai'i residents, not 52, who signed up to do Boston '09. The first name on the marathon's still-posted Hawai'i entrant list is JOSEPH ALLEN, who was planning his fourth straight Boston run. Sadly, Allen died March 1 at age 48. Running friends remember Allen, a retired Air Force sergeant, as a gentle giant, quiet but warm, who took running very seriously and had used the activity as a means of losing 75 pounds. Several of the Boston entrants will be running in his memory.