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The inaugural Chicago Marathon, then called the Mayor Daily Marathon, was first held in 1977 and 4,200 runners paid $5 to enter—making it the largest marathon in the world at the time. In the past decade, Chicago has consistently been the second largest marathon in the world behind the New York City Marathon, averaging 42,273 finishers from 2014-2019 and tallying a record 45,956 finishers in 2019. After the race was canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19 and held with a smaller field last year, a near-capacity field of more than 40,000 runners is expected at the 44th running of this year’s race on October 9.
Many runners say the best thing about the Chicago Marathon is the flat, fast course that has produced five world records—including the current women’s world record of 2:14:04 set in 2019 by Brigid Kosgei. (Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto owns the course record for men, 2:03:45, which he ran in 2013.) That course…
