Chicago Marathon, live.

Twenty-nine neighbourhoods and back to Columbus Drive

Chicago is a loop: it starts on Columbus Drive in Grant Park and comes back to the same street, after a tour the organiser counts as 29 neighbourhoods long.

The course map reads like a city index. North through the Loop, River North and Old Town to Lincoln Park, Lake View East and Wrigleyville; back south and then west through the West Loop, Greektown and the Illinois Medical District; south into Little Italy, Pilsen and Chinatown, past Bridgeport and Bronzeville, and finally north up Michigan Avenue, past Roosevelt Road at Mile 26, onto the last stretch of Columbus Drive. The organiser calls it flat and fast, and counts seven world records set on it.

The 48th running was on Sunday 11 October 2026, and the race is held on the second Sunday of October. About 55,000 runners from more than 100 countries start in three waves, which in 2026 left at 7:35, 8:00 and 8:35 a.m. after the professionals at 7:30. There are 20 aid stations one to two miles apart, gel depots at Miles 12.4 and 18.1, and a course time limit of 6 hours 30 minutes: a vehicle behind the last starter holds a 15-minute-mile pace, and the streets reopen behind it.

Spectators cannot get into the start and finish areas in Grant Park, so the cheering happens out on the loop, at the 8K in Lincoln Park, on N. Wacker at Mile 13, at Adams and Loomis at Mile 15. Livebib helps a family pick its corner. The runner shares a link to their own broadcast; it opens in a browser, no account and no app, and shows the position on the course line, the distance covered and a finish estimate that updates as the race goes, marked as estimated, never as measured. If the phone drops signal, the dot is carried forward along the course instead of freezing. The runner decides who gets the link.