Applications for the 2027 Chicago Marathon Open Oct. 8

Chicago Marathon organizers set the 2027 entry calendar on Tuesday. Applications for the marathon itself open Oct. 8, and runners who complete all three races in the city’s distance series next year will be handed a guaranteed entry to the 50th running of the marathon in 2028.

The Chicago Distance Series is made up of the Shamrock Shuffle 8K on March 21, the Chicago 13.1 on June 6 and the marathon on Oct. 10. Finish all three and organizers send a series medal and, more valuably, the 2028 entry. Registration for the 8K and the half-marathon opened this week, so the series is currently the only route to a 2028 start line that a runner can lock down today.

Marathon applications open at 8 a.m. Central time on Thursday, Oct. 8, and close at 2 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29. A United States entry costs $250. From anywhere else it is $260, and neither figure has moved since last year. Anyone who does not hold a guaranteed place goes into the general drawing, with results sent out Dec. 8.

Those are long odds, and they have been getting longer. More than 200,000 people applied for the 2026 race, which sold out with a field of 55,000, the largest in the race’s history. One cycle earlier it was about 160,000 applications for roughly 50,000 places. Chicago is one of the seven World Marathon Majors, and like most big-city races it now hands out the bulk of its general entries by drawing. The list of large marathons that still take runners first come, first served keeps getting shorter.

The 2027 window is also tighter than the last one. Applications for the 2026 race ran for four weeks, from Oct. 21 to Nov. 18 last year. This time they get three, and applications open Oct. 8 with the 2026 race itself three days behind it. Plenty of next month’s field will be filing for 2027 while they are still tapering.

Six categories skip the drawing altogether. Charity runners are the largest of them, taking on a fundraising minimum of $2,200 and making up roughly a third of the field. The rest are time qualifiers who hit the age-graded standards or the High Performance Division mark, legacy finishers with five or more Chicago Marathons in the past decade, anyone who completed the 2026 series, runners booked through an official tour operator, and those who canceled a 2026 entry.

The Shamrock Shuffle returns to the Loop on March 21 and opened for registration Tuesday at $51, rising to $56 after Oct. 20. The same weekend carries a one-mile race on the Saturday, at $25 or $15 for ages 8 to 12, and a 2-Mile Walk on the Sunday at $51. The Chicago 13.1, which runs through the West Side, is set for June 6 at $120, with no early rate offered this year.

“Participation and interest in the Distance Series have grown every year, which is a direct result of the running community’s dedication,” Carey Pinkowski, the executive race director, said in a statement first reported by NBC Chicago. The full schedule sits in the organizers’ announcement.

The first leg of that series goes in March, and the 50th running is scheduled for Oct. 8, 2028.