Staying fit at 80 is impressive. Running a marathon at 80 is very impressive. Setting a 50-minute personal best in the marathon at 80 is so impressive that it seems impossible, but the Chicago Marathon expects otherwise.
Announcing new (and fast) qualification standards for 2025, this Abbott World Marathon Major just surpassed the Boston Marathon in level of difficulty for qualification. For the women’s 80+ age group, the required entry time is 50 minutes faster than last year, jumping from 6:10:00 to 5:20:00.
As at some other world majors, such as the New York City Marathon, runners can also enter via the lottery or the charity program.
The Chicago Marathon’s previous standards for guaranteed entry trailed behind those of the Boston Marathon by five to 10 minutes, whereas their new standards now are five to 10 minutes quicker than Boston’s. Chicago also split the seven former age groups to create 11 new groups spanning over five years, aside from the youngest 18-34 group. As the age increases, so does the time jump. You could be facing a 10-minute jump, 30-minute jump, or no jump at all in your required times since last year, depending on where you land in your category range.
Curiously, the women’s standards have been altered much more dramatically than the men’s, and increasingly so in the older age groups. It will be interesting to see how these updated standards will affect the gender participation gap.
2024 Qualification Standards for Chicago Marathon
| Age group | Men | Women | Non-binary |
| 16 – 29 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 30 – 39 | 3:10:00 | 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 | 5:55:00 |
| 80 and over | 5:25:00 | 6:10:00 | 6:10:00 |
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2025 Qualification Standards for Chicago Marathon
| Age group | Men | Women | Non-binary |
| 18 – 34 | 2:55:00 | 3:25:00 | 3:25:00 |
| 35 – 39 | 3:00:00 | 3:30:00 | 3:30:00 |
| 40 – 44 | 3:05:00 | 3:35:00 | 3:35:00 |
| 45 – 49 | 3:15:00 | 3:45:00 | 3:45:00 |
| 50 – 54 | 3:20:00 | 3:50:00 | 3:50:00 |
| 55 – 59 | 3:30:00 | 4:00:00 | 4:00:00 |
| 60 – 64 | 3:45:00 | 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 | 4:45:00 |
| 75 – 79 | 4:30:00 | 5:00:00 | 5:00:00 |
| 80 and over | 4:50:00 | 5:20:00 | 5:20:00 |
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The race directors also added an entirely new High-Performance Program with capacity for 150 participants with sub-elite qualifying standards, offering these athletes their own dedicated toilets, stretching areas and other race-prep resources. Evidently, the Chicago Marathon has its eyes set on drawing in athletes of the highest calibre. This new group will start behind the elite field and ahead of the first mass-start corral.
If your 2024 Chicago Marathon training plan didn’t have the final target of a personal best, there is no time like the present to set new (and very fast) goals.
