Chicago Marathon lottery 2027

The Bank of America Chicago Marathon does not use the word lottery. Its own term is the non-guaranteed entry drawing, and the distinction is not pedantry: it describes the order of operations. Chicago fills its field from guaranteed-entry routes first, and the drawing distributes whatever is left among everybody who was not eligible for one.

You apply once, inside a single application window, which for the 2027 race ran from October 8 to October 29, 2026. There is no fee to apply. At the close of the window, names are selected from the full pool of non-guaranteed applications. If you are drawn, you are told by email on Tuesday, December 8, and you then have until 11:59 p.m. CT on Tuesday, December 15 to pay the entry fee and complete your registration. A selected applicant who misses that deadline is not registered and is not assigned a bib.

That is a change from the last cycle. For the 2026 race, applicants gave card details with the application and the entry fee was processed automatically on selection. For 2027, selection is followed by a payment step you have to complete yourself, inside one week.

The event has published the full dated sequence for the 2027 race. The window has closed. If you entered the drawing, two dates are left: December 8, when results are emailed, and December 15, the deadline to pay if you are selected.

This window closed almost three weeks earlier than the last one. For the 2026 race, applications closed at 2 p.m. CT on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, applicants could withdraw until 5 p.m. CT on Thursday, December 4, 2025, and results were emailed on Thursday, December 11, 2025. Anyone planning around last year's calendar would miss this one.

Sources: Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Apply, checked 11 October 2026. The official page gives the October to December dates without a year; all of them fall in 2026. The 2026-cycle dates come from the same page as archived on 8 August 2026.

Every guaranteed entry is decided outside the drawing, so the useful question is not what your odds are but whether you have to take those odds at all. For 2027, Chicago publishes these routes:

• Time qualifier. A marathon on a certified course, run in the qualifying window of January 1, 2025 to October 29, 2026, inside the standard for your division and your age on race day. For men aged 16-34 it is 2:50:00; for women and non-binary athletes, 3:20:00. Full table on our Chicago qualifying times page.
• Legacy finisher. Five or more Chicago Marathon finishes within the last ten years. Finishes before 2016 do not count, and neither do years you registered but did not finish. Registered 2020 participants are treated as 2020 finishers; 2020 Virtual Experience finishes are not. If the 2026 race is your fifth finish, the event says to submit your 2027 application after you finish it.
• Chicago Distance Series. Finish all three 2026 events: the Shamrock Shuffle 8K, Chicago 13.1 and the Chicago Marathon. Eligible runners are emailed instructions on Tuesday, October 13.
• High Performance Program (full for 2027). Sub 2:25:00 for men and sub 2:45:00 for women and non-binary athletes, with masters (40 and over) standards of 2:35:00 and 2:50:00, from a marathon run on or after January 1, 2025. The cap has doubled to 300 places at a reduced fee, and for 2027 it has reached capacity and is closed. The 150-place program for 2026 was already full by 8 August 2026.
• Charity. First-come, first-served through an official event charity until September 10, 2027, or until that charity is full. The minimum fundraising commitment is now $2,500, up from $2,200 for 2026, and the charity entry fee is $325 for U.S. residents and $335 for non-U.S. residents.
• Official tour operator. A package that bundles entry with travel and accommodation, open through Tuesday, August 10, 2027. Not every country has an approved operator, and the event says more information on this route arrives on December 8.

The event lists three more guaranteed paths that apply only to specific runners: a 2026 entry cancelled to 2027 under the standard policy (you still submit a 2027 application and pay the fee again), a 2026 entry cancelled under the pregnancy and postpartum policy (a 2027 application, without paying again), and the Para Athletics Program.

• Participants must be 16 or older on race day. Anyone under 18 on race day must be registered by a parent or legal guardian, who accepts the waiver on their behalf.
• The entry fee is $250 for U.S. residents and $260 for everyone else, or $325 and $335 for charity entries, plus a processing fee. All registration fees are non-refundable.
• Refundable registration is sold only during the application and registration process, for an extra service fee the event puts at roughly 10-15% of your cart. It is not available if a charity, tour or sponsor partner pays for your entry.
• A registered runner who cannot race can cancel through Wednesday, October 6, 2027 for a guaranteed 2028 entry, but must complete the 2028 application and pay the 2028 entry fee. Charity and tour entries, and anyone who already cancelled from 2026 to 2027, are excluded, and a cancellation cannot be undone.
• Selling or transferring a bib is strictly prohibited.
• You must collect your own packet at the expo, in person, with a government-issued photo ID matching your registration name.
• The course reopens on a rolling schedule based on a 6 hours 30 minutes (6:30:59) finish limit.