Bank of America Chicago Marathon

People come to Chicago to run fast. Less than 40 meters of total elevation gain, wide streets, October temperatures — the course is built for it. But the Chicago Marathon finisher poster tells a different story than the course profile does. The loop through 29 neighborhoods has texture that doesn't show up in the elevation chart, and when you map it, you can see every community the race passes through.

Chicago Marathon at a glance

• World Marathon Major: One of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors
• Course: Near-flat loop starting and finishing in Grant Park; less than 40 meters of total elevation gain
• Neighborhoods: 29 distinct neighborhoods on the course
• Scale: ~45,000 finishers; lottery entry, applications open October–November
• Date: Second Sunday of October

The course

The race begins at Columbus Drive in Grant Park with the Loop skyline rising immediately to the west. The early miles move through downtown, then the course heads north before turning back through River North and into the neighborhoods that define the back half of the race. Boystown brings the loudest crowd of any single block. Pilsen packs the streets with murals and mariachi. By mile 20, you're in Chinatown, which provides a genuine surge when most runners need it most.

The LaSalle Street underpass comes at the halfway point — a slight dip under the bridge with echoing footsteps, then a climb back out. It's a small thing, but runners remember it. Miles 20 through 26 run through the south side before Columbus Drive brings you back to the finish in Grant Park, the same stretch of lakefront where you started. That loop — threading through two dozen neighborhoods and returning to where it began — is what makes the Chicago course such a striking event poster. The shape is clean and the city is all the way through it.

Grant Park holds you at the end. The finish line is exactly where you left it four-plus hours ago, and Chicago has been alongside you the whole way.

Your 29-neighborhood route is ready whenever you are at makemap.