The Windy City is set for one of its most beautiful and celebratory days of the year as athletes from across the country and the world travel to the jewel of the Midwest for the 2025 Chicago Marathon. The race will feature over 50,000 entrants and will kick off with the men’s and women’s Marathon Wheelchair starts. Elite runners will begin at 8:30am ET.
For runners, Chicago is known as a famously fast course. In the men’s field, defending champion John Korir of Kenya leads the way. Korir started off 2025 with a win at the Boston Marathon in April and holds a personal best of 2:02:44 from his win in Chicago last year. Among his top competitors will be Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo. The half marathon world record holder has just one career marathon under his belt, but it was a powerhouse 2:03:37 for 2nd at the London Marathon this spring. He’ll look to add to his resume and his experience at the 26.2 distance on the streets of Chicago this Sunday.
The 28-year-old pride of Logan, Utah, 2024 Paris Olympian Conner Mantz, leads the American contingent and has said that he’s in pursuit of the American record (2:05:38 from 2002).
“After Boston, where I finished with guys who have run 2:02 and 2:03, it doesn’t feel like a stretch to say I can run 2:05:30 on a looped, flat course,” Mantz said in June. He ran 2:05:08 for 4th in Boston this spring.
On the women’s side, the Americans are led by Lindsay Flanagan and Natosha Rogers, both of whom have lifetime bests under 2:24. The fastest women in the field are a pair of Ethiopian athletes: 2024 Valenica Marathon champion Megertu Alemu (PB 2:16:34) and her countrywoman Hawi Feysa (2:17:00), who was third at the Tokyo Marathon in March. Kenya’s Irine Cheptai
and Mary Ngugi-Cooper could also contend.
The Men’s and Women’s Wheelchair fields both contain the defending champion: on the women’s side, Switzerland’s Catherine Debrunner faces off against powerhouse Americans Susannah Scaroni and Tatyana McFadden. And on the men’s side, Marcel Hug (SUI) goes for his sixth win and fourth consecutive after taking the crown in Chicago in 2016, 2017, 2022, 2023, and 2024.
For more information on how to watch Sunday’s competition, see below.
How to Watch the 2025 Chicago Marathon
- Date: Sunday, October 12th
- Start Time: 8am ET (7am CT)
- TV Coverage: NBC5 Chicago, Telemundo Chicago, TeleXitos
- Live Streaming available on nbcchicago.com and telemundochicago.com
2025 Chicago Marathon Course
For more information on the marathon course and amenities, click here.
Chicago Marathon Race Day Schedule
**All Times Central**
7:20 a.m.: Marathon Wheelchair start (men)
7:21 a.m.: Marathon Wheelchair start (women)
7:23 a.m.: Marathon Handcycle start
7:30 a.m.: Wave 1 start (Elite & Corrals A, B, C, D and E)
