Overview The Chicago Marathon is a single loop that starts and finishes in Grant Park and runs through 29 of the city's neighborhoods, and across its first 47 runnings it produced seven world records and three American records. It is one of the Abbott World Marathon Majors, run each October with Bank of America as title sponsor and organized by Chicago Event Management. Race weekend opens with a three-day expo at McCormick Place. On site Twenty aid stations sit one to two miles apart, each with a medical tent, portable toilets, water, Gatorade Endurance Formula and an announcer, and medical support covers 22 points on the course. The Biofreeze Pain Relief Zone stands near Mile 21.2 at Cermak Road and Archer Avenue. The course stays open six and a half hours, a 15-minute-mile pace. Finishers come back into Grant Park, where the 27th Mile Post-Race Party is the meeting point for runners and their families. The Abbott Health and Fitness Expo fills Hall B1 of McCormick Place's North Building from Thursday to Saturday, with more than 180 exhibitors in 2026 selling footwear, apparel, nutrition and technology. Audience Every runner has to collect a packet in person at the expo, since nothing is mailed or handed out on race morning, so the whole field walks the hall in the three days before the start. The expo is also free and open to the public. The 2025 field came from all 50 states and more than 100 countries. Talent and Influencers In 2025 Jacob Kiplimo won the men's race in 2:02:23, the second-fastest time in the race's history, and Hawi Feysa the women's in 2:14:56. Conner Mantz ran 2:04:43 for fourth and broke Khalid Khannouchi's 23-year-old American record. Five women finished under 2:20, a first for any single race. Marcel Hug won the men's wheelchair race for a sixth time, the first man to do so, and Susannah Scaroni the women's. Track record The 2025 race was the 47th, and it set a participation record with more than 54,000 finishers. Bank of America puts the marathon's annual economic impact on Chicago at $547 million. Brand presence The title sponsor's name rides on the race itself, and Abbott names both the expo and the Majors series. Other partners hold named places on the course and in the hall: Gatorade is the drink at every aid station, Biofreeze has its own zone late in the race, and the expo floor is sold to exhibitors. Partners also reach finishers and families at the 27th Mile Post-Race Party in Grant Park.