![\"Jared](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CTC-L-half-marathon-0518-03_229393350.jpg\")
Jared Appel walks through the spring market finish festival after running in the Chicago Spring Half Marathon in Grant Park, May 18, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\nThousands of people poured into downtown Sunday near Butler Field in Grant Park for the Life Time Chicago Spring Half Marathon. The event, now in its 16th year, is an opportunity for Chicagoans to celebrate spring in the city \u2014 and for runners far and wide to test their abilities and mark new personal achievements. <\/p>\n
The runners represented 48 states and 33 countries, with many waking up bright and early to participate in either the half marathon or the 10K. A total of about 7,000 people participated in the event, which included the 13.1-mile half marathon, the 6.2-mile 10K and the Junior Dash, a running event for kids 12 and under.<\/p>\n
Friends and family showed up as well to cheer on their loved ones on the cool, overcast morning, some with signs that read \u201cOne step at a time you\u2019ve got this,\u201d \u201cRun like Joe Jonas is at the finish line\u201d and \u201cChatGPT can\u2019t help you with this one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The course started on Columbus Drive south of Monroe Street and followed the Lakefront Trail, providing runners with a scenic waterfront view of the iconic Chicago skyline.<\/p>\n
Joosim Song, 35, said he enjoyed the view, but was absorbed by the task at hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t really focus on it because I\u2019m running so hard,\u201d the Arlington Heights resident said. But in the end, it all paid off \u2014 Song said he got a new personal record in the half-marathon, finishing in 1 hour and 19 minutes.<\/p>\n
Samantha Hanson, 28, also beat her record at the half-marathon, coming in at 1 hour and 18 minutes. The Minneapolis resident is the women\u2019s champion for the half-marathon, but when it was all over, there was just one thought on her mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really glad to be done,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For some runners, the race was an opportunity not just to beat personal records but also a chance to mark the challenges they overcame.<\/p>\n
Jared Appel does not consider himself a runner. The 18-year-old from Plymouth, Minnesota, had not even run a 5K before, let alone a 10K race. But after going through six months of chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma, which forced him to put his life on hold, Appel wanted to do something to get his life back on track. Going to the gym was one of the few things he could do to get out of the house during his treatment, and just as his treatment wrapped up, he saw an advertisement for the half-marathon at his gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, I\u2019ve been able to work my way up from being able to barely run a mile,\u201d Appel said. \u201cI\u2019ve done the whole 10K twice, once on a treadmill, once outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jared Appel walks through the spring market finish festival after running in the Chicago Spring Half Marathon in Grant Park, May 18, 2025. (Armando L. Sanchez\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n
He was excited to prove to himself and his friends that he could run the entire course. He ended up doing just that, only taking a few 30-second walk breaks throughout.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that I was able to run that distance alone was something I never thought I\u2019d be able to do,\u201d Appel said. \u201cI never thought I would run for more than 10 minutes without panting so hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by the time he finished the race, Appel said he was a little disappointed. He was seconds away from finishing the 10K in under an hour, but ultimately finished at 1 hour and 16 seconds.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s race was also a challenge for Becky Allen of Wonder Lake, who said she had never run a half-marathon before. She was a little nervousand considered dropping out but ultimately stuck with it.<\/p>\n
The half-marathon\u00a0was another way for the 44-year-old to mark how far she has come from four years ago when she weighed 300 pounds. She has since lost weight through a combination of weight loss surgery and exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my past, had enjoyed running but just never really stuck with it,\u201d said Allen, who ran cross-country for a short time in high school. \u201cBut after I lost the weight and got much more active, I decided that I enjoyed running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Allen said her sister and brother-in-law run a lot of 5Ks, and after Allen got back into running, she started joining their runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would go with my sister, and we would walk them before I lost the weight,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then as I got more active, and I was working out every day, and I lost the weight, all of a sudden, I was keeping up with my brother-in-law. I always had this goal: \u2018Someday I\u2019m going to beat him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
And finally, Allen did. Now her sister does not want to run 5Ks with her anymore because she runs them too fast, Allen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA half-marathon is a really big jump for me. I probably should have gone to a 10K first,\u201d Allen said. Regardless, she was still excited to put her best effort into the race, and ended up finishing in a little over three hours.<\/p>\n
Originally Published: May 18, 2025 at 3:20 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of people poured into downtown Sunday near Butler Field in Grant Park for the Life Time Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113127,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4322],"tags":[1630,105,2843,3611,12,79,6417,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-113126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-latest-headlines","11":"tag-local-news","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-things-to-do","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}