I swore off the Chicago Marathon after running it in 2024. At the time, I felt like it had nothing left to offer me. I had run it ten times, so there was nothing new about it to discover. The hassle of getting a hotel nearby that didn’t cost an arm and a leg was something I could do without. I got my personal best marathon time there 10 years ago, and I don’t think I can ever run fast enough to set a new one. Maybe I’m missing out on the experiences that many other marathons could offer. And the puking post-race was definitely something I no longer want to experience. Marathons beat the heck out of me, so maybe it was time to try other distances and races for a while. But then last weekend, 55,000 people lined up and ran it and seemed to enjoy the experience. I had major FOMO.
I follow a Chicago Marathon Reddit page, and it was fun watching the runners get excited about the race, worry about the weather, and, for many, experience Chicago for the first time. I loved reading posts about post-race colds, post-race blues, and post-race hunger that won’t quit even though the training and race are over.
Many local running club friends also ran the race and loved their experience. Even my daughter volunteered at the race and had fun passing out finish chute beers to anyone who wanted a beer to celebrate.
I’m still on the organization’s email list and got a prompt to sign up for the 2027 race. When I didn’t sign up for the 2026 race, I lost my legacy status, which allowed me to enter the race without having to go through the lottery or meet the qualifying standard. But even though I knew that I didn’t meet the legacy requirements of having run at least 5 Chicago Marathons in the past 10 years, I went ahead and entered my info in the legacy application just to see what would happen. I’m still waiting for them to send the denial email, but until then I can have some fun thinking about running through the streets of Chicago in October one more time.
~~~~~
I took a week off after running 58.33 miles at Broken Anvil and jumped right back into the fire with a couple of 10-mile runs and a fast 5-miler, and the following week added 37 miles to the total. Last week I added a 13.5-mile run and followed that with a fast-paced 8-mile run, which was the run that put an end to my running for a while. I had done too much too soon, and my knees were super sore. I wouldn’t be worrying about it too much, but I went ahead and signed up for a 25K trail race in November that I have done several times in the past. I’m sure I will recover in time to run it, but I won’t be able to train for it with the intensity that I had hoped for. It’s still a few weeks away, so I will start soon with some shorter and definitely slower training runs.
~~~~~
Do you have any 2026 Chicago Marathon stories? I’d love to hear them in the comments. Thanks for reading.
