Last week we asked whether Jacob Kiplimo could take a shot at Sabastian Sawe's 1:59:30 in Chicago. On Sunday, October 11, we got our answer: no, and he didn't even win. After finishing third in 2024 and second in 2025, Amos Kipruto finally broke the tape at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in 2:01:09. On the women's side, Hawi Feysa defended her title in 2:13:33, winning the deepest women's marathon ever run.
Chicago Marathon 2026 winners and top finishers
| Place | Men | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Amos Kipruto 🇰🇪 | 2:01:09 — PR |
| 2 | Tadese Takele Bikila 🇪🇹 | 2:02:56 — PR |
| 3 | Milkesa Mengesha 🇪🇹 | 2:03:46 |
| 4 | Jacob Kiplimo 🇺🇬 | 2:04:18 |
| 5 | Boki Diriba 🇪🇹 | 2:05:01 |
| 7 | Clayton Young 🇺🇸 | 2:05:23 — top American |
| Place | Women | Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawi Feysa 🇪🇹 | 2:13:33 — PR |
| 2 | Sharon Lokedi 🇰🇪 | 2:14:07 — PR |
| 3 | Brigid Kosgei 🇰🇪 | 2:14:55 |
| 4 | Mary Ngugi-Cooper 🇰🇪 | 2:17:23 |
| 5 | Joan Kilimo 🇰🇪 | 2:18:39 |
| 7 | Emma Grace Hurley 🇺🇸 | 2:20:47 — top American |
More than 54,000 participants took part in the 48th running, which winds through 29 Chicago neighborhoods.
Men's race: course-record pace through 30K
The men went out hot. Six of them — Kipruto, Kiplimo, Bikila, Mengesha, Diriba and Daniel Mateiko — hit halfway together in 1:00:21, eight seconds quicker than Sawe's split during his world record in London and right on track for the late Kelvin Kiptum's course record of 2:00:35. By 25K (1:11:19), it was down to four.
That's when Kiplimo squeezed: 13:58 from 25K to 30K, roughly 4:30 mile pace and faster than world-record pace. At 30K (1:25:28), only Kipruto was still with him, and the projection was about 2:00:12. The two traded the lead before Kipruto made the decisive move just after Mile 21. He was 12 seconds up at 35K and 1:32 clear by Mile 24, then went through 40K in 1:54:31.
His 2:01:09 is a 30-second PR on the mark he set in London in April. It's the second-fastest time in Chicago Marathon history, the second-fastest ever run on U.S. soil, and it equals Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09 from Berlin 2022, tying him for fifth on the all-time performer list. The 2019 world bronze medalist now has his second Major title, after London 2022. In the race's official release, he put it simply: "When the mindset is ready to go, the body will follow."
Kiptum's course record survives. Kipruto's second half (1:00:48) was 27 seconds slower than his first.
What happened to Jacob Kiplimo?
Kiplimo won Chicago in his marathon debut last year and was trying to become the first man to repeat here since Samuel Wanjiru in 2009 and 2010. He did much of the leading and was the one who blew the pack apart. According to World Athletics, he then pulled a hamstring.
The numbers from 35K to the finish tell the story: Kiplimo needed 24:08 for the last 4.47 miles, about 5:24 per mile, while Kipruto ran 21:11 (about 4:44 per mile). Passed by Bikila and then Mengesha, he finished fourth, 3:09 behind the winner. Six months after his 2:00:28 in London, the idea of a second sub-two-hour marathon in 2026 died over the final 10K.
Women's race: three under 2:15 for the first time
Feysa and Brigid Kosgei went with the pacers from the gun (31:04 at 10K). Sharon Lokedi, the two-time Boston champion running her first flat, fast major, held back and rejoined the leaders around 20K. They hit halfway in 1:06:06, on 2:12 pace.
By 30K (1:34:16), it was Feysa versus Lokedi, with Kosgei 11 seconds back. The two were still shoulder to shoulder at 35K (1:50:23), and Feysa finally broke away with about a mile to go.
Her 2:13:33 is an 84-second PR that makes her the fourth-fastest woman in history. Lokedi's 2:14:07 moves her to No. 8 all-time, and former world-record holder Kosgei completed the podium in 2:14:55. World Athletics says it's the first marathon in history with three women under 2:15. Further back, Australia's Isobel Batt-Doyle set an Oceania record of 2:20:38.
Americans: Young 40 seconds off the record, Hurley and Rupp make history
The much-hyped American race delivered, just not the way anyone scripted it. Vincent Mauri went for it, hitting halfway in 1:02:15 on American-record pace, but cramped late and was caught by Clayton Young and Charles Hicks by Mile 22. He hung on for 10th in 2:06:45.
- Clayton Young ran 2:05:23 for seventh, a PR that makes him the second-fastest American man ever, 40 seconds shy of Conner Mantz's 2:04:43 American record from Chicago last year. U.S. outlets report he raced through a hamstring injury.
- Charles Hicks clocked 2:05:35 in eighth and is now the third-fastest American ever.
- Galen Rupp, the 2017 Chicago champion, ran 2:06:55 at 40, breaking the American masters record by more than three minutes.
- Emma Grace Hurley, the American 8K record holder, ran 2:20:47 in her marathon debut, the fastest debut ever by an American woman.
In all, 22 Americans (10 men, 12 women) hit the 2028 U.S. Olympic Team Trials qualifying standards. In the wheelchair races, Switzerland's Catherine Debrunner lowered her own world record by 60 seconds to 1:33:16 — the first wheelchair world record ever set in Chicago — and Marcel Hug set a course record for his seventh Chicago win.
Weather: a warm-up as the morning went on
Earlier in race week, organizers set the Event Alert System at yellow, the second of four levels, signaling less-than-ideal conditions. National Weather Service observations at Midway Airport show about 60°F at the start, with humidity near 80% and almost no wind, then 65°F around 10 a.m. and 70°F by noon.
For the elites, who finished around 9:30 a.m., it was a decent day. For a 4:30 marathoner starting in one of the later waves, the last miles were run at around 70°F.
Pacing takeaways for everyday runners
You don't need a negative split, but you do need an even effort. Kipruto's second half was 27 seconds slower than his first; Feysa's was 81 seconds slower. On a morning that keeps warming up, a slightly slower second half is still a well-run race. The damage comes from a multi-minute fade.
Surges get paid back after Mile 21. Kiplimo gained a few seconds between 25K and 30K and gave back almost three minutes at the end. Mauri paid for his record-pace first half. At your level: a 3:30 marathoner (about 8:01 per mile) who "banks time" in the first half almost always gives it back, with interest, in the final 10K. Set your goal pace with our marathon pace chart and sanity-check it with the race time predictor using a recent half marathon or 10K.
Patience pays. Lokedi let Feysa and Kosgei go, caught them by 20K and walked away with a huge PR. Young and Hicks let Mauri fly and reeled him in at Mile 22.
Manage the heat from the gun. Sixty degrees with high humidity is enough to push your heart rate up. When the alert flag is yellow, start a few seconds per mile slower than planned, drink early and use the sponge and misting stations. And if you ran Chicago on Sunday, our post-marathon recovery guide will help you through the next two weeks.
Looking ahead to 2027
The 49th Chicago Marathon is set for Sunday, October 10, 2027, and will host the USATF Marathon Championships. The application window for the 2027 drawing is open until 2 p.m. Central on Thursday, October 29. Everything you need is on our Chicago Marathon 2027 race page.
Got Chicago 2027 or another marathon on your calendar? RunRun builds a plan around your fitness and your race date, then checks off each workout you complete to adjust what comes next — so you reach the start line with a pace you can actually hold to the finish.