RegattaCentral

2023 Chicago River Marathon & Half Marathon Regatta Packet. 

Please view our Coaches & Coxswains Meeting here. 

Course Maps

1x, 2x, and 4+ Half Marathon ** Start at Loomis, Finish in Bubbly **

4x and 8+ Half Marathon ** Start in Bubbly Creek, Finish at Loomis**

Full Marathon  ** Start at Loomis, Finish in Bubbly **

The Chicago River Marathon and Half-Marathon is a regatta that will challenge the toughest of rowers who seek an adventurous row that rivals the average head race.

The Full Marathon will start and end in the Bridgeport neighborhood and extend north to the Albany Park neighborhood before heading back straight south to finish near the start. The course covers the dynamic range of Chicago’s neighborhoods, surveying the changing landscape from industrial to natural prairie land. Rowers will race through Chicago’s famed downtown and will pass architecturally significant buildings like the Willis Tower, Civic Opera House, Merchandise Mart, The Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower, and Aqua Tower. The course will also lead rowers past the sites of Chicago’s four city boathouses. Perhaps most remarkably, the course runs under or past every single one of the city’s historic moveable bridges, of which Chicago has the most of any city in the world!

The Half-Marathon course also starts in Bridgeport, but does not pass north of Kinzie St. Rowers will still race through downtown, passing the same architectural landmarks as the Full Marathon, but will then proceed southward rather than northward.

In 2016, the Chicago River Marathon partnered with The Paris Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International (CSCI) to celebrate Paris and Chicago as sister cities and to expand the reach of The Rowing Exchange. The Rowing Exchange was started in 2011 by Susan Hackett  and is chaired by Stephanie Leese Emrich of The Paris Committee of CSCI. It has seen University of Chicago Crew student rowers participate in La Traversée de Paris annually and in June of 2012, a Chicago tour row by the Parisian rowers from Aviron-Marie.

Registration Information

8+s and 4+s may register online via regatta central to participate in the Chicago River Marathon and Half Marathon. 

4x, 2x, and 1x must first apply by completing the Chicago River Marathon & Half Marathon Blind Boat Applicaiton Form. Applications will be approved on a first come, first serve basis each week, beginning August 3rd. The Regatta Committee uses the application to determine the amount of time the blind boat has spent together, both racing and training, and what kind of experience the crew, or competitor, has doing this kind of distance.

Please direct all inquiries to [email protected].

Course Video

Course Map