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The city behind the course

A Chicago weekend

Start with the places the marathon actually passes.

The route's local signatures

Meet the architecture and landscape along the course. Use these places to get to know the city before deciding how to spend your time on your feet.

Aon Center

Near mile 0.3

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 346 meters.

Two Prudential Plaza

Near mile 0.3

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 279 meters.

Trump International Hotel and Tower

Near mile 1.4

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 357 meters.

Marina City

Near mile 1.5

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 179 meters.

Chicago Board of Trade Building

Near mile 2.3

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 184 meters.

Moody Church

Near mile 4.6

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 26 meters.

Merchandise Mart

Near mile 12.8

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 104 meters.

Willis Tower

Near mile 13.5

Built into the flyover as a race-specific local landmark. The model rises about 442 meters.

A weekend rhythm that protects race day

  1. Arrival. Base your first walk on the real start and finish geometry, then inspect the final approach in the route map.
  2. Packet pickup. Go to Abbott Health & Fitness Expo, McCormick Place, North Building, Level 3 - Hall B1 inside its published window; save the final hours offline.
  3. The day before. Choose one course landmark, keep the outing short, and finish your feet-up time early.
  4. Race day. Follow the transportation plan, not ordinary weekend traffic directions.
  5. After the finish. Let the finish-area access plan decide the meal and meetup, especially on a point-to-point course.

Where the weekend should be based

Runners book Chicago as a distance problem and it is actually a street problem. Grant Park does not close on race morning, it closes days beforehand: in the 2025 official schedule Balbo between Michigan and Columbus and Columbus from Ida B. Wells to Roosevelt shut at 4 a.m. on the Thursday, Columbus from Monroe to Ida B. Wells and Congress Plaza Drive shut at 4 a.m. on the Friday, and Columbus from Randolph to Monroe plus Monroe east of Michigan shut at 4 a.m. on the Saturday. Columbus from Roosevelt to the finish was closed from 4 a.m. the Thursday before all the way to 3 p.m. the Monday after. So the question that matters about a hotel is not how many minutes it is from the start line, it is which side of Michigan Avenue it sits on and whether a car has to touch a closed street to reach the door. Everything in the measured four to nine minute band is on or west of Michigan, which is the right side of the line: you cross Michigan once on foot and you are in the park, and you cross it once more coming out of the finish chute.

Compare the actual hotel geometry →

Course geometry provenance is stated beside the player; elevation profiles always use the same route loaded there. City geometry is OpenStreetMap, ODbL. Aerial imagery is from USGS and USDA; other images carry their own source credits. Weather figures use Open-Meteo reanalysis for October 7-15 across 2016-2025 at the start line. Schedule, prices and expo hours were checked in 2026-08-26 and are the fields most likely to move: confirm them on www.chicagomarathon.com before you book anything. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it fast.