Chicago Marathon launched its 2025 time grades today and are fast, fast, fast. Five minutes faster than the Boston Marathon qualification times, to be exactly.
As a history, the Chicago marathon has a lot of ways of entering the race, including charity entry, a lottery system and gaining a qualification time in an anterior marathon, which is certified as a qualifier. In today’s career update email, a link included the newly announced time classifications 2025, which had some dramatic changes.
2024 Chicago marathon qualification times
| Age group | Men | Women | Non -binary |
| 16 – 29 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 30 – 39 | 3:10:00 am | 3:40:00 | 3:40:00 |
| 40 – 49 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 50 – 59 | 3:35:00 | 4:20:00 | 4:20:00 |
| 60 – 69 | 4:00:00 | 5:00:00 | 5:00:00 |
| 70 – 79 | 4:30:00 | 5:55:00 am | 5:55:00 am |
| 80 and on | 5:25:00 am | 6:10:00 am | 6:10:00 am |
2025 qualification times of Chicago Marathon
| Age group | Men | Women | Non -binary |
| 18 – 34 | 2:55:00 | 3:25:00 am | 3:25:00 am |
| 35 – 39 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 am | 3:30:00 am |
| 40 – 44 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 45 – 49 | 3:15:00 am | 3:45:00 am | 3:45:00 am |
| 50 – 54 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 55 – 59 | 3:30:00 am | 4:00:00 | 4:00:00 |
| 60 – 64 | 3:45:00 am | 4:15:00 | 4:15:00 |
| 65 – 69 | 4:00:00 | 4:30:00 | 4:30:00 |
| 70 – 74 | 4:15:00 | 4:45:00 am | 4:45:00 am |
| 75 – 79 | 4:30:00 | 5:00:00 | 5:00:00 |
| 80 and on | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 | 5:20:00 |
My time qualifier went from 3:50 for a guaranteed entrance in 2024 to 3:35 for a guaranteed entry in 2025, a 15 -minute jump.
One of the reasons for the dramatic decreases is that the Chicago marathon also changed a 10 -year window to a 5 -year -old window. Then, some runners will only see a 10 -minute jump, but if you are one of the lucky ones like me, it is better that you start that speed training because the entrance only obtained much more diffcom.
The Chicago Marathon is now more difficult to gain a guaranteed entrance than the Boston Marathon, since all time require a faster rating time of 5 minutes. This is not precedent and will certainly result in some unhappy runners in Chicago.
Remember that the entrance through the lottery and through a charity are viable options. The marathon has declared that tickets will continue to be a mixture of all types of entry, so presumably the proportions must remain the same for the participants.
Another change in marathon admissions is the addition of the “high performance program”. This program has a capacity of 150 runners and sacrifices a variety of services, such as reduced input rates, a dedicated hospitality tent and a pen between professionals and Corral A.
| Qualification standards | Marathon |
| Men | Sub 2:25:00 |
| Women | Sub 2:45:00 |
| Non -binary | Sub 2:45:00 |
| Master – Men | Sub 2:35:00 |
| Master – Women | Less than 2:50:00 |
| Non -binary mastery | Less than 2:50:00 |
It is not clear how these new times will affect the corral and entrance placement colaton, but we will inevitably discover it in 2025. If you are running the 2024 Chicago marathon, enjoy the last year of the old standards and go to the new ones.
