Chicago Marathon lottery

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. At the close of that window, names are selected from the full pool of non-guaranteed applications. If you are drawn, the entry fee is charged to the card you supplied automatically — you do not get a second chance to confirm.

The 2027 application had not opened when this page was checked. What the event has published is the full dated sequence of the cycle that just ran, and that is the most reliable template for planning the next one. Treat the dates as a shape, not a promise — the event notes that all dates are subject to change.

Two things follow from that shape. The withdrawal deadline sits a week before the drawing, so the decision to stay in has to be made before you know the outcome. And because the fee is charged on selection, the card you enter in November has to still be valid in December — the event asked for an expiry of December 2025 or later for a drawing held that same month.

Source: Bank of America Chicago Marathon — Apply, checked 25 July 2026.

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

• Time qualifier. A certified marathon inside the standard for your age and division, run on or after January 1, 2024. For men, 2:50:00 at 16–34; 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 2015 do not count, and years you registered but did not finish do not count. Registered 2020 participants are treated as finishers.
• Chicago Distance Series. Complete all three of the Shamrock Shuffle 8K, Chicago 13.1 and the Chicago Marathon in the same year.
• High Performance Program. Sub 2:25:00 men, sub 2:45:00 women and non-binary, with masters standards of 2:35:00 and 2:50:00. Capped at 150 places and a reduced fee.
• Charity. First-come, first-served through an official event charity, with a minimum fundraising commitment of $2,200. Each charity sets its own team, benefits and targets.
• Official tour operator. A package that bundles entry with travel and accommodation. Not every country has an approved operator.

Two more routes exist but are not open to plan for: a deferred 2025 entry cancelled under the standard policy, and a 2025 entry cancelled under the event's pregnancy and postpartum policy — the latter without paying the fee again.

It is worth being straight about the number every reader actually wants. Chicago does not publish how many people apply to the drawing, how many places the drawing distributes, or an acceptance rate — none of those figures appear on the event's application page. Any percentage you see quoted elsewhere is somebody's estimate, and there is no organiser source to check it against.

What the event does publish is enough to plan with. Applications are drawn from one undifferentiated pool with duplicates removed, so there is no advantage in timing, residence or membership — unlike New York, which splits its drawing into three geographic pools. Applying on the first morning of the window gains nothing.

If you are not selected, the event points you at the remaining charity and tour operator places, which stay open into the following summer. In the 2026 cycle those closed on September 15 and August 16 respectively — roughly nine months after the drawing result landed.

• Participants must be 16 or older on race day; 16- and 17-year-olds need guardian permission given during the application.
• The entry fee is $250 for U.S. residents, $260 otherwise, plus a processing fee, and it is non-refundable.
• 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 and 59 seconds finish limit.