Hurricanes Milton, Helene create one more obstacle for Chicago Marathon runners

(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Imagine spending months training for the Chicago Marathon — and then not being able to run.

That's a possibility for some of the roughly 1,500 runners from Florida who are registered for the Chicago Marathon this Sunday.

Dave Richardson is from Davie, Florida, and flew into Chicago early to make sure he was not grounded by Hurricane Milton.

“The Chicago Marathon has been really outstanding dealing with this,” he told WBBM. “They’re being very proactive, reaching out to anybody that has a state of Florida address registered. I got an email last night giving me the option immediately to defer to 2025. Very simple if I had to do that.”

Richardson hopes marathon organizers, though, will extend packet pickup hours for runners who might be getting into town late.

“I there’s any way that the Bank of America Chicago group would consider somehow, some way for Florida folks that — if they can’t make it here by Saturday night at 6 p.m. … if they can get in on a later flight in the evening, to have somewhere to go Sunday morning, because everybody down there’s trying,” he said. “They’re trying really hard to get out.”

Find more information about the Chicago Marathon, including where and when street closures will take effect, with the WBBM Chicago Marathon guide .

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