The Chicago Marathon was run on Sunday morning, and there was plenty to love this year.
One of the best marathons in America is run every October in Chicago. One of the greatest cities in the world shuts down for a Sunday morning run, spanning almost all of the historic neighborhoods within the city limits.
It’s an event that not only brings Chicagoans together but also runners from all around the world. There’s money on the line, but overall this is a coming together of people from all corners of the world to go on a collective morning run together — and it’s perfection.
Here’s all you need to know what happened this year:
Results and Highlights
It’s like the Boston Marathon where you have people who are actually running the marathon, while others are simply doing it for participation.
Galen Rupp became the first American to win the Chicago Marathon since 2002. It took him just over two hours to complete the race, which is just mind-numbing if you’ve ever flown over Chicago and seen how huge the city it.
Clocking in just nine minutes after Rupp was the women’s winner, Tirunesh Dibaba.
Tatyana McFadden took home the top prize in the women’s wheelchair division:
Prize Money Breakdown
Running these marathons is a hard thing to do, and more than pride comes with crossing the finish line. There’s a combined $200,000 on the line for runners who finish in the Top 5. If that’s not motivation to run faster, I don’t know what is.
Overall
1st — $100,000
2nd — $50,000
3rd — $25,000
4th — $15,000
5th — $10,000
One interesting wrinkle to the Chicago Marathon is that it honors Illinois residents in their own division. You might not be in the running for the top overall prizes, but residents of the state are eligible for their own purse:
Top Illinois Finishers
1st — $2,000
2nd — $1,500
3rd — $1,000
4th — $500
5th — $250
There are other divisions that breakdown prize money, and you can check that out here.
Another year of the Chicago Marathon is in the books, and everyone who ran it will likely not be forgetting how memorable it was anytime soon.