Chelsea Clinton Runs Her First Chicago Marathon

Chelsea Clinton ran her first Chicago Marathon on Sunday, and when she reached the finish in Grant Park her parents were waiting for her again, just as they had been in Boston in April. The former first daughter crossed the line in 3:47:55, and it was Bill and Hillary Clinton who gave her the finisher’s medal, NBC Chicago reported after speaking with her past the line.

“It was awesome, it’s a little hot,” she told the station’s Alex Maragos.

Saturday’s forecast had pointed to a cloudy, cooler start, and the temperature was indeed about 60 F at Midway Airport when Clinton crossed the start mat at 7:36 a.m. It climbed quicker than predicted under mostly clear skies, though, and National Weather Service observations at Midway had it at 70 F before noon, roughly an hour ahead of schedule. With the dew point holding around 55 F, the back half of the race was sticky as well as warm for anyone out past 10 a.m. Clinton told NBC Chicago that the crowd’s enthusiasm got her through the final miles, when the sun felt hottest.

She paced the heat well, going through halfway in 1:53:10 and running the second half in 1:54:45, only 1:35 slower, with every one of her 5K splits falling between 25:51 and 27:41. The last 2.2K, from 40K to the finish, was her fastest stretch since the opening 5K, run at about 8:08 per mile. Over the full distance she averaged 8:42 per mile, and the official results have her 4,561st among women and 428th of 45- to 49-year-old women, in a race won by Amos Kipruto and Hawi Feysa, who both ran the second-fastest winning times in Chicago history.

Chicago came six months after the 3:40:52 she ran in Boston, still her personal best, and it was 3:33 slower than the 3:44:22 she ran at the New York City Marathon last November. By the Associated Press’s count, Boston was her seventh marathon, four of them in New York, which makes Sunday at least her eighth. She had kept Boston quiet, entering under the name “Margaret Smith,” according to Scripps News, while in Chicago she was listed under her own name.

Clinton ran for Every Mother Counts, the maternal health charity founded by Christy Turlington, a friend of hers. She also ran New York for the group in 2024, alongside her best friend, Jen, she wrote on X after that race. “It shouldn’t be dangerous to bring life into the world,” she said in Chicago.

Asked whether she would come back to the race, Clinton said, “I hope so, maybe on a cooler day.”