Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 here in 2023. The course is flat, the skyline is constant, and the wind off Lake Michigan in October is very much not. You ran Grant Park to Grant Park through 29 neighborhoods. Turn your Strava data or GPX file into a poster that shows exactly where those kilometers went.
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Chicago attracts runners who want a time. The course earns that reputation: minimal climbing, wide roads from the Loop through Lakeview, South Side, and back, with the skyline as a backdrop throughout. A personalized poster of that route, with finish time and name, is the kind of gift a serious runner actually puts on the wall.
“I ran Chicago specifically for a PB and got it. The poster was an afterthought, but it ended up being better than I expected. You can see every neighborhood on the map and the finish time is right there below the route. It is basically the GPS file of my personal best, on the wall.”
Robert M. ★★★★★
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The race
Chicago is where runners come to find out what they are actually capable of. The course starts and finishes in Grant Park with the skyline behind it, runs flat through neighborhoods from the Loop to Lincoln Park to the South Side, and has Lake Michigan to the east the whole way. Kelvin Kiptum set the marathon world record here in October 2023 at 2:00:35. The course looks easy on paper. The October wind off the lake does not care.
Chicago is one of the six Abbott World Marathon Majors, alongside Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, and New York. The field draws elite runners and age-groupers chasing times on one of the most competitive courses in the world.
The course moves from Grant Park through the Loop, up to Lincoln Park and Lakeview, across to Pilsen and Chinatown, and back. Twenty-nine neighborhoods in a single morning. Each one shows up differently on the map.
Minimal elevation, wide roads, and a course certified for world records. Kelvin Kiptum ran 2:00:35 here in 2023. If you came to Chicago for a time, you picked the right race.
The race starts and finishes in Grant Park with the Chicago skyline directly behind it. That skyline stays visible for most of the course. It looks exactly as good on a poster as it does in person.
Lake Michigan sits to the east for most of the race. In October the wind off the water is a genuine factor. The lake looks good on the poster. The headwinds do not show up there, which is probably for the best.
Upload your Strava or GPX from race day and every neighborhood, turn, and straight shows on the map. Add your finish time below. If you ran a PB, it belongs on the wall.
2 minutes
Click the button below and the Chicago Marathon course opens directly in the editor. Or connect with Strava to import your personal GPS trace from race day for a fully personalized Strava print.
Choose from 12 map styles, pick your colors, and add your finish time, name, and a personal title. Live preview as you go. What you see is what you get.
Download a high-resolution digital file for €7.95 and print it anywhere yourself. Or order a premium marathon wall poster from €24.95, ready to hang, delivered to your door.
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Also available
Make a poster for other events too.
Beyond the race
Connect Strava and map every run, ride, or walk on a heatmap poster. Not just the race.
Turn 42.195 km through Chicago's neighborhoods, along the lake, and back to Grant Park into a poster you'll see every day.
Personalize your Chicago Marathon Poster →100% Satisfaction Guarantee
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Chicago's course is one long loop through downtown and neighborhoods like Pilsen, Boystown, and Chinatown, so most people running it just once want that single line, start to finish, especially alongside a bib number and finish time. Heatmap mode fits someone who trains around Chicago year round and wants every lakefront run layered onto one map, not just marathon Sunday.
Because Chicago is famously flat, a plain colored line usually reads clean without much variation for elevation data to reveal. Pace coloring can still be worth turning on if your splits shifted a lot, say a strong stretch through the Loop followed by a tougher patch near mile 20 in Chinatown.
You can change the map background, recolor and resize the route line, edit the title and any personal text, add a bib number or finish time, choose print size and orientation, and drop in photos from race day. The preview keeps up as you go, so nothing is final until you order.
Chicago is one of the World Marathon Majors, so the GPX file for most recent years is already in the system. If the specific year you ran is missing, let us know and we'll load it in. That also means a poster can be started before you know someone's finish time, since their name, time, date, and photos can all be added once the race is over.
More questions? See our full FAQ page.
