Events/Chicago Marathon

Chicago Marathon

Running

Date

Sun, 10 Oct 2027

Venue

Grant Park → Columbus Drive, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Countdown

October

Distance

42.195km

Total climb

30m

One of the two great PB courses of the Marathon Majors, alongside Berlin. 42.195km of pancake-flat city streets, barely 30m of climb, starting and finishing in Grant Park.

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The course

The route

A 42.195km loop through central Chicago, starting and finishing in Grant Park with the line on Columbus Drive. Flat throughout at roughly 30m total, wide grid streets with minimal turns, and one short rise onto Roosevelt near the end.

Weather

Early-October, Grant Park → Columbus Drive

18°CTypical high

12°CTypical low

3°CColdest in 20 years

35%Days with rain

Highs around 18°C and lows around 12°C, but it has dropped to 3°C. Rain on 35% of days.

NASA POWER data, 2006-2025, the week either side of race day

Training

Training for the Chicago Marathon

We don't do generic plans. We combine deep knowledge of this race's demands with your recent training, then build a plan with you that progresses as you do.

Beina integrates directly with your existing tools to understand your current fitness, and synchronise your planned sessions.

Intervals.icu

A flat, fast, honest test

Typical sessions

42.195km with almost no elevation, so raw aerobic fitness and marathon-pace endurance decide the day, not terrain

Long straight streets that tempt an overfast start, especially through the roaring Magnificent Mile crowds

The wall zone from around 30km, where even, well-fuelled pacing is your only defence on a flat course

GPS drift under the early tunnels, luring you into chasing a phantom pace off a jumpy watch

What your weeks look like

Typical sessions

Marathon-pace long runs, 30 to 34km with 15 to 20km at goal pace, fuelled exactly as on race day

Even-pace focus runs, 12 to 16km at marathon pace on long straight routes, held by plan not by watch

Long tempos of 40 to 60 minutes at marathon pace, plus 3 to 4 x 3km threshold reps in the build

Fuelling rehearsed at 60 to 90g of carbs an hour, trained on your long runs from 12 weeks out

Not a generic schedule

Typical sessions

Built from your current fitness and the time you actually have

Adapts every week as Beina learns how you respond

Syncs your sessions straight to Garmin and Wahoo

One clear next session, never a wall of spreadsheet

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