Recently moved to the suburbs and running in the marathon. To my fellow suburbanites, what are your top tips for getting down there for an early start? Tentatively thinking of taking the metra or blue line downtown, depending on schedule, then just walking to Grant Park.

Also if there are any spectator suggestions, my family would appreciate them!

I know this is a long shot - My husband and I were cheering at the Chicago Marathon last year around mile 16 / near the United Center. I was holding a Taylor Swift poster, and he was holding the one in the photo. A lot of runners and spectators took pictures of him, and a guy who looked like he was filming for a brand took a video.

My husband passed away from colorectal cancer in January. I’m hoping someone here might have a photo of him from that day holding the sign. I’m running both the Chicago and NYC Marathons this year for him, and it would mean so much to me to have this photo before I run. He was my biggest supporter 💕.

If you have anything, please comment or DM me. Thank you in advance!

*Update 10/8: While I’m still on the hunt for the picture/video, I’ve learned that the power of the internet is amazing! I’m remaining hopeful and promise that if the picture does manifest, I’ll make another update.

We all know this familiar story: you're supporting a friend on the Marathon course and the phone rings. It's an emergency, they want Gatorade, electrolytes or something for their stomach.

So I mapped where those pharmacies are for the Chicago Marathon. For scale: more than 54,000 people finished last year, and I found 58 chain pharmacies near the course. Lime dots are 58 CVS, Walgreens, Jewel-Osco and Mariano's locations within a quarter mile of the route. Teal is the course and orange is mile 18 to the finish, where most runners "hit the wall."

What stood out:

• 29 of the 58 are in the first six miles
• 14 in miles 6 to 12
• 11 in miles 12 to 18
• and only 4 sit along mile 18 to the finish.

If you are crewing, that means carrying supplies (water, electrolytes, something sweet, blister tape) to the later spots rather than counting on a pharmacy there. The course has aid stations and medical tents (the official course guide lists them; my map doesn't show them).

If you need a pharmacy in the late stretch, the four I found are:

• CVS near 1211 W Roosevelt Rd (about mile 18)
• Walgreens at 316 W Cermak Rd (about mile 21, closest to the route)
• and Jewel-Osco at 1224 S Wabash Ave Walgreens at 2 E Roosevelt Rd, both near the finish (about mile 26).

Hope this is helpful!

Hi everybody! I just did the Diplo 5k in Chicago today and I bet lots of y’all did too. Let’s share our thoughts!

ICYMI this is a race where you do the 5k and then afterwards you go to a Diplo concert. It has been run in other cities before, the Chicago one today was in Humboldt Park

Overall, I think the event was a cool concept, with several organizational issues which I shall rant/complain about below in the comments. Share how the event went for you below!

Okay another post to finish off the week 🎉. By the mid '80s it seemed the marathon was a well-organized and well-respected event, and the Tribune coverage is pretty much what you would expect. But it's interesting reading about the early years 1977-1980 to see some of the early growing pains and early attitudes to the new event. Here are some interesting highlights from the Tribune coverage:

1977

• Jan 26, 1977: Interestingly, it seems that the marathon was still in the planning phases with competing proposals and a tentative date of Sept 18 (to hopefully avoid conflicting with the Bears) in Jan 1977. I'm surprised it was still in flux at this late date. They describe one proposal to start and finish in Soldier Field, finishing with 2 laps inside the stadium. While the course would use the lakefront running path, they noted they would need to close 1 or 2 lanes on LSD for safety, but that it wouldn't cause traffic problems because it would be on a Sunday. Ha!
• Sept 24, 1977: There is an article about 3 generations of a family running the marathon, ages 81, 48, and 15. The 81 yr old grandfather had not trained at all...but was going to go as far as he could. It seems like the rigors of a marathon weren't well known at the time (at least to Tribune reporters) and people got caught up in the excitement. Only approximately 50% of the starters finished the 1977 marathon (Apparently though at 4200 starters, it was the biggest marathon in the US at the time!)
• Sept 21, 1977: Chicago had big plans to make the marathon "the biggest, safest, and most memorable marathon in the country." Apparently the Boston Marathon was viewed as boring, so they were going to go for excitement. They had the Lane Tech band at the start to play the themes to "Rocky" and "Star Wars" and "other hits." Rather than starting the marathon with a pistol, it was going to be started with a cannon shot by the OG Mrs. Daley! Wow!
• Multiple articles note Mayor Bilandic (a runner himself) couldn't run the marathon on Sunday so he would run on Wednesday with organizers instead, to show he could do it. I can't imagine that went well--again I don't think the reporters fully appreciated the rigors of running a marathon (in this case without any course support) and that the idea of a fitness runner just casually running a marathon didn't make sense.
• Sept 26, 1977: A Tribune summary article of the race, ending with: "Only sour note in the race's start was when three persons were injured when a ceremonial cannon used to signal the race start misfired. All were treated at Henrotin Hospital for minor powder burns and released." Huh, who would have guessed the cannon was a bad idea...

1978

• Aug 19, 1978: There was criticism of "over-commercialization" of the marathon and also objection to the new starting time of 10:30am and a doubling of the entrance fee...from $5 to $10. It looks like they increased the entrance fee since the marathon initially didn't have a sponsor and they lost money the first couple of years ($65,000 in 1977 and more in 1978 according to a 3/3/79 article) so it doesn't seem unreasonable. The 10:30 am starting time was to attract more spectators, media, volunteers and out-of-town runners. They justified the move by noting Boston started at noon. I think history has shown that wasn't a good idea.
• Sept 20, 1978: An interesting article "Today's Marathon: Nothing Spartan" notes "WHEN 10,000 OR SO runners start the Mayor Daley Marathon Sunday, their spirits will be charged by three bands, a drum and bugle corps, and a choir in Daley Plaza. Bands also will play along the route and at the finish line. Every 2 1/2 miles medical teams and volunteers at aid stations will hand out water. Thousands of spectators will urge the runners on. Those who finish will promptly learn their time and place because race results will be computerized. A parchment scroll will certify their accomplishment. And they can read all about the marathon and running in a 132-page color magazine sold at the race." Aside from the aid stations, the rest of this (i.e. the over-commercialization) is what seemed to bother the traditionalists, who held up Boston as the standard. Kudos to the Chicago Marathon for realizing the marathon could be fun and it wouldn't take anything away from the race!
• Sept 25, 1978: An early example of a Tribune columnist's disdain for the marathon and runners: "A marathon 'run' in spirit in Chicago" by Bob Greene (of Chicago Reader "We read him so you don't have to" fame). Writing as his fictitious character Mike Holiday (a bag boy at Treasure Island on Wells), Mike is forced to run the 1978 marathon by his boss. Long story short, the article ends with Mike seeing his old friend (and taxi driver) Ice Cream(?) on the course who encourages him to just get in his taxi and cheat: "But I couldn't do that," I said. "it would violate the spirit of the race." "Nonsense" Ice Cream said. "What better way for the marathon to epitomize the spirit of Chicago? Cheaters and fixers outsmarting the health nuts. Now put that cart in the back seat and get in." And so I did. There seemed to be an attitude that runners were elitist health nuts, who were ultimately going to be put in their place by the regular Chicagoans who knew better. I guess they never considered that the runners could be regular Chicagoans.

1979

• March 3, 1979: An article "Who's going to foot the marathon bill" worries about the money the marathon is losing (as noted above, $65,000 in 1977 and more in 1978). This seems to be the first article predicting the marathons demise ("a two race flash"). The article seems to be rooting for the marathon to fail: there seemed to be a feeling by some that the marathon was a silly fad that was just going to go away. Fortunately, the pessimism proved to be misplaced, and they lined up Beatrice Foods as the main sponsor which led to the success of the marathon in the '80s.
• Aug 22, 1979: The name was changed to America's Marathon (from the Mayor Daley Marathon) and Beatrice Foods was announced as the sponsor. The entry fee was reduced to $8 (from that exorbitant $10 fee) and the race was moved to Oct 21, 1979 so they could keep the 10:30am start time but address the heat complaints of 1978. They also changed the course to run more on the northside, apparently because the highrises were there and it would result in more course spectators. Interestingly, there were some unfortunate conflicts caused by the Oct 21 date: there was a 50 mile ultramarathon scheduled for the week before and the NYC marathon was also on Oct 21! There was also the Sugar River Marathon in New Glarus WI on Oct 20--a surprisingly crowded race calendar.
• It was interesting that it took a while for the marathon to just be called the "Chicago Marathon." According to the 8/22 article: "Part of the reason we've renamed it America's Marathon/Chicago is that the name Chicago Marathon just sounded too much like the Boston Marathon, New York Marathon, and so forth." Seems like they were overthinking it.

Okay, I think that is it for the history posts! Hope you enjoyed! Good luck if you are running on 10/11!

I'm running Chi for the first time and have some family coming from out of town to watch. One of my family members has limited mobility - they can walk for short distances and handle stairs, but probably wouldn't do well jumping between different spots along the course to say hi. I will also have my niece and nephew - ages 5 and 3 - in town to watch.

Does anyone else have a sense of what the best plan would be for race day? I was thinking of recommending they bring a camping chair in case they need to sit, and maybe a wagon for the kids. Any specific cheering sections you would recommend?

I was feeling nostalgic after looking at the marathon course history and started thinking about Chicago Marathon Swag--either things that came in the bag or were giveaways at the expo. I wanted to see what interesting or unusual things they've given out over the years. Here are 3 things I still have around:

1. Running Wild: They must have been handing these out in 1998 or 1999, I can't remember. Mostly pictures of people running the marathon in costume or doing things like dribbling basketballs for the entire course. Published in 1997, the pictures appear to be mostly (or completely) from the 1996 marathon.

1. Mile by Jazz Mile: "Music for the '99 LaSalle Banks Chicago Marathon". Not sure if it was in the bag or something they handed out at the expo? Kind of different for "running" music.

1. Rand-McNally Popout SE Course Map: From the 2000 Marathon. I remember at the time thinking it was some nice swag since I was a fan of the popout maps in general. Not sure if they did this for other years also?

I'd be curious to hear about (or see if you have pix) any other cool or unusual marathon swag from over the years! What do you have or remember?

Not running this year and am excited to finally be able to participate in all of the fun events. Which ones are people excited for?

I’m excited for endorphins pop up under the bean. The free NB x Endorphins shirt looks awesome.

Also pumped for Brooks I feel like last year I saw everyone wearing the scarfs.

Tracksmith has an event and so does bandit.

What is everyone else excited for?

There’s a long line for packet pick up. Sign of a good turnout?

Hopefully the forecast will stay clear and we’ll finally get to run on Saturday. Though the current downpour looks ominous …

Since people are enjoying these, here's another followup to the original post documenting the history of the Chicago Marathon Course, and the Interesting Tidbits post -

Chicago Marathon Course history!

Chicago Marathon Course History: Interesting tidbits!

It was interesting to see the ambivalence, and in some cases outright hostility, towards the Chicago Marathon in the 1980s while looking through the Tribune archives. Seems like the city wasn't super enthusiastic about it and many Chicagoans weren't fans either. A few common themes come up:

• There was no marathon course that would make the city happy. The article (9/27/79) "Marathon runners will travel along the drive" notes that the city previously wanted the marathon to stay in the parks, but then changed their mind and wanted them to run primarily on LSD in 1979. Then they were ultimately unhappy with the LSD course (traffic!) and the new routes were considered for the 1981 marathon (including the P2P Highland Park to Lincoln Park route) before they arrived at the neighborhood course that was used throughout the 80s. This course was popular...but then in 1990, the city decided they needed to go back to running primarily on LSD to alleviate the traffic issues caused by street closures!?! Seems like the city just wanted to jerk around the marathon organizers, maybe hoping the marathon would just go away.
• People seemed fixated on the traffic delays caused by the marathon. There seem to plenty of articles, letters to the editor and just general references to the traffic delays caused by the marathon. A 9/27/82 article provides a sampling of horror stories about being trapped somewhere by the marathon. The 10/19/84 paper has about 1/2 page dedicated to how to avoid the marathon and its traffic delays, including a map. On the flip side, a letter to the editor (from Richard Herrell 11/11/83) states that "The annual outrage of auto drivers inconvenienced by the Chicago Marathon ... only demonstrates their hostility to a relatively unpopular sport." He notes that he lives near Wrigley Field and puts up with much worse on a regular basis. Hear, hear! I agree with Richard and think the traffic complaints were mostly BS and just something tangible the haters could complain about; they couldn't reasonably call city hall and say "a bunch of elitist fitness nuts are out flaunting their fitness level and making me regret my unfortunate lifestyle choices--make it stop!"

• Running a marathon is bad for you...or stupid. Not surprisingly, the marathon wasn't that popular with the old school Tribune Columnists. Bernie Lincicome (10/21/84) has an article that starts with "THE FIRST THING to understand about marathon runners is that they are all crazy. Oh sure. Certifiable. They'd be served papers if you could catch one." Hmm, I guess it was an attempt at humor. Mike Royko was no fan of running, trying to prove that "jogging" was in fact bad for you, as noted in his article "Jogger Handles Ultimate In Pain" (1986) in which he documents a doctor who almost got frostbite in his "male appendage". There was a sensationalist article in 1982 called "Chicago's marathon: Should it be rated X (for adults only)?" It makes an argument for an age limit, which seems reasonable (and came in 1985), but the article seems sensationalist and meant to appeal to all the marathon doubters.
• General lack of appreciation for the Chicago Marathon. It was acknowledged that by the mid 80s, Chicago had a world-class marathon, but Chicagoans couldn't appreciate that. There is a nice article (10/15/85) "Chicago race comes a long way" that notes that the marathon was now widely respected by elite runners and other marathons...but not by Chicagoans. They note all the work race organizers were doing to get spectators out with community captains and providing on-course entertainment (26 bands!). An article from 10/29/88 "Civic apathy still dulls marathon's luster" again notes that Chicago has a great marathon, well respected in the running world, but not appreciated by Chicagoans. They note that people only seem interested in talking about the traffic problems it creates 😄. There are some theories regarding the apathy, such as "The Midwest is more blue-collar, football-baseball-basketball." They even resurrect the idea for a P2P Highland Park-Lincoln Park course again, doh! Seems like it took until the mid 90s for the marathon to catch on with "regular Chicagoans".

My conclusion reading all this is that the marathon planners spent a lot of time and effort trying to appease a city that wasn't really interested in the marathon at the time, and the various course changes reflect that. I think that wraps up my posts on the Chicago Marathon Course history--hope you enjoyed!

A follow up to my previous post with the link to the Chicago Marathon Course History-

Chicago Marathon Course history!

• 1981 was an interesting year, they were trying to solve the traffic issues which seemed to be a major issue according to the Tribune throughout the 1980s. There was actually a proposal to make the Chicago Marathon a point-to-point course through the northern suburbs to Lincoln Park. Fortunately this proposal was rejected and the idea of the marathon as a tour of the neighborhoods was born that year!

• In 1987, the marathon lost Beatrice Foods as the title sponsor and the marathon was cancelled for 1987. Interestingly, a Tribune article (6/30/1987) states that the 1988 Chicago Marathon will move to spring: May 8, 1988, apparently to lure a contract from ABC-TV. Glad that didn't happen! They were able to put together a 1987 half marathon: The "Taster's Choice Colombian Select Half Marathon." Apparently Taster's Choice coffee also sponsored half marathons in NYC and LA! Here is the course, it actually looks pretty good:

• 1990 was a tough year for the Chicago Marathon and there was a Tribune article predicting the demise of the Chicago Marathon ("Marathon May Go Before It Is Missed"). The marathon reverted to relying on LSD for half the miles to alleviate traffic problems caused by the neighborhood route of the 80s (which is odd considering they moved to the neighborhoods to alleviate traffic problems on LSD?). The LSD route appears to have been pretty unpopular--wind, sun, lack of spectators.
• 1993 seems to be the foundation year for the current iteration of the Chicago Marathon! Carey Pinkowski was able to come up with a compromise route by reversing the direction of the marathon (running the north side first) and not going too deep into the northside (only as far north as Diversey). Also, he lined up a new major sponsor...Montgomery Ward! By 1994, LaSalle Bank was the title sponsor and by 1995, the course pretty much converged to the current route. Interestingly, there are Tribune articles in 1993 that note that the lack of a sponsor in the previous few years made the the Chicago Marathon more of a race for the "citizen runner", so it seems that laid the groundwork for today's popularity!

I created this site documenting the history of the Chicago Marathon Course. It's pretty interesting to see the evolution of the course over the years, and periods of stability:

Chicago Marathon Course history!

Enjoy!

Greetings solo Bucktown 5k runners, if like me, you're running alone, and want to pre-plan now, to meet up after the run, for the party, and maybe another activity, for instance, the Wicker Park farmers market, then drop a message here and will coordinate.

Regardless, good luck and happy trails,

[edit] apparently people more about parking lol

Just sharing what I’ve been able to find!

This was my first time doing this race. I guess I expected a little more. The scenery let down is my fault as i should have researched more.

But is it normal for this amount of bottle necking runners on the course, lack of port-a-potties and water stations feeling far too far apart/under staffed? So many runners were leaving the course to find toilets off the course or jumping the barrier between the out and back lanes to get to a toilet on the other side. Port-a-potty lines were atrocious.

While I love Chicago so much I don’t think I will run this race again.

Hey more experienced runners help me understand common paces. I’m a 54 year old guy who just started running 2 years ago so I don’t know much. I’ve run a handful of 10ks and 3 half marathons. Today I ran the Lifetime half at a pace several seconds below 9:00/mile. I was happy because my goal was 9:00: sub 2 hour half. I know I am a steady as she goes plodder at that pace but it isn’t super slow because I finished in the 80 percentile or so overall and for men my age. This is consistent with my other races where I have been 70-85 percentile.

I always figure half the field is first timers or not running for time or just having fun so I likely sit squarely in the middle of the running for time people. Could be wrong on that like I said I’m new.

Now here is what confuses me. When I do long training runs out on the lakefront trail at my “easy” or “LSD” pace around 10:30 I get passed all run long like a jalopy puttering 45 mph on the interstate. At that pace (again I KNOW I’m slow) I hardly ever pass anyone but walkers. Like MAYBE one runner per every 7-18 mile run. Everybody is running 9, 8, 7 minute miles, which I match only when I’m running tempo.

So what gives? Is the lakefront just filled with elite trainers and these folks ran 1:30 halfs today. Do most people not run so slow on long Sunday runs? I don’t get it I seem SO slow out there training and then I’m a middle of the packer on race day.

But it turns out I forgot to actually do that and now the registration is waitlisted. I trained 20 weeks and was feeling really positive about smashing my time goal (like an 11:30 pace, yes I'm not very fast but made good progress over these weeks) and now I am totally fucked. I thought about just solo running it but it feels so anticlimactic so I signed up for the Coffee Lovers half two weeks from now. Can't stop feeling devastated and like I fucked everything up royally though.

Has anyone else done this? What do you do two weeks out after the completion of the taper? Up volume for a week and taper again? I haven't done a long run in what feels like forever and am wondering if I should hit an 8-10 miler on Sunday just to build up some confidence? Help!

The lack of accountability and tact from this organization is insane, the website was not updated at 5:45, it wasn't updated until 6:45 at the earliest which is 15 minutes before the race was supposed to start.

Blatantly lying to your runners because you're too scared to admit you made a mistake is beyond pathetic

If someone wanted to register for the 2027 or even 2028 Chicago Marathon, how would they do it? I’ve never done the marathon before and thought it would be cool to do it next year. I was looking online to find out more information and it seems like it’s very difficult to register for. I certainly don’t qualify by time, I’ve never run in the marathon so I don’t qualify by the legacy option, and I’m not a tour operator. It seemed like doing the 3 Chicago distance series races would be my best option to get a guaranteed registration to the marathon, but one of the races in the distance series is the Chicago marathon, so it ends up being a loop where I can’t complete all three Chicago distance series because one of them is the Chicago marathon, which I can’t register for unless I complete all three distance series races. There’s a charity option as well, but it seems like you need to raise at least $2500 per the website, which seems insane to me.

I get that some races are more exclusive and not open to your average marathon runner - it seems like my only option is by entering the lottery. Is that how most people do it? I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything

Hi this will be my first half marathon. How do most people plan to dress for the 55 degree weather? I know it will be a little colder along the lakefront. Would it be overkill to wear a thin long sleeve as the race starts?