The 2024 Chicago Marathon is right around the corner, with the action kicking off out of Millennium Park and down the streets of the Windy City on Sunday, October 13th.

The fifth and penultimate World Marathon Major of the year is always a promising site for fast times, featuring the world record on the men’s side and the second-fastest run of all time on the women’s. It’s also where Emily Sisson ran the now-two-year-old American record of 2:18:29, a mark that may or may not survive the weekend with a stacked U.S. pro field on tap.

The elite races kick off at 8:30am E.T. (7:30am local) and the race can be watched live on NBC Chicago and Peacock (subscription required). A full schedule of events can be found here. You can follow along with a live leaderboard and runner tracking, and we’ll have live coverage and interviews on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube all day.

On this week’s episode of the CITIUS MAG Podcast, Chris Chavez and Preet Majithia previewed Sunday morning’s Chicago Marathon. In last week’s episode of Getting Chicked, Karen Lesiewicz, Megan Connolly Morant, and Rachel DaDamio outlined the ultimate guide to spectating the marathon if you’ll be watching in-person.

Here’s what to look for in both the women’s and men’s professional fields:

Women’s Race: Can Ruth Chepgnetich Get The Hat-Trick?

Still on a comedown from her absurdly busy schedule in Paris, 2023 champ Sifan Hassan will not be returning to the roads where she ran the second-fastest time ever last October. In her absence, the favorite has to be Ruth Chepngetich, who won this race in 2021 and 2022 and finished runner-up to Hassan last fall, running an incredible 2:15:37 to claim the unenviable title of fastest women’s non-winner in history.

Chepngetich’s PB of 2:14:18, which came on this course two years ago, is over 90 seconds faster than anyone else in the field has ever run. Chepngetich enters as something of a wild-card, fitness-wise, as she hasn’t raced since a disappointing 2:24:36 run in London. If Chepngetich can come away with the win, she’ll join Khalid Khannouchi as the only people to ever win Chicago at least three times (Khannouchi won four editions of this race).

Ethiopia’s Sutume Kebede could prove to be Chepngetich’s chief competitor Sunday morning. Not only does she have the second-fastest PB in the field, but that 2:15:15 clocking came in Tokyo earlier this year, where she beat, among others, the Olympic champ in Hassan. After finishing 15th in her Chicago debut last year, Kebede’s marked improvement means she’ll be hunting an upset.

Joyciline Jepkosgei, who ran a PB of 2:16:24 en route to a third-place finish in London six months ago (a race where Chepngetich finished ninth), is sure to be another strong contender for the crown, as well as a talented Ethiopian trio of Degitu Azemiraw, Ashete Bekere Dido, and Hiwot Gebrekidan.

The American showdown may become a chase for Emily Sisson’s American record, as three of the five fastest women in U.S. history will be on the start line alongside 2021 Chicago runner-up Emma Bates, Chavez’s pick to take down the record. Keira D’Amato, who held this record for just under nine months in 2022, will be racing 26.2 miles for the first time since moving to Utah to train with coach Ed Eyestone. We won’t know until Sunday exactly what her and Eyestone’s race plan looks like, but don’t be surprised if she’s in the mix for the top American crown.

2024 U.S. leader Betsy Saina, whose fifth-place finish in Tokyo in 2:19:17 was a huge leap forward, figures to be a prominent player as well. 2016 Olympic 1500m champion Matthew Centrowitz is set to be pacing this pack as they go after 2:18:29, so that will be something to keep an eye on even if the leaders are well ahead.

Men’s Race: An Open Race With Big Shoes To Fill

Kelvin Kiptum set his iconic world record of 2:00:35 on this course last year, but unfortunately he won’t be back to defend his crown after his untimely and tragic passing in February. The race organizers have announced that there will be a moment of silence at the start line in honor of Kiptum.

The fastest PB in the field belongs to late addition Birhanu Legese, who won the Tokyo Marathon in 2019 and 2020 and ran 2:02:48 in a runner-up finish at the 2019 Berlin Marathon, but his results over the last few years haven’t quite been up to that level.

The Kenyan duo of Vincent Ngetich and Amos Kipruto come next on that list, as they have identical PBs of 2:03:13. Kipruto has four podium finishes at World Marathon Majors including a victory at the 2022 London Marathon, but his 2024 season debut has been delayed due to injury and his 2023 campaign was underwhelming, with a DNF in London and a 7th-place finish (albeit in 2:04:49) in Berlin. Ngetich, who took third in Tokyo in March and second in Berlin last September, may have the slight edge as the favorite given that Kipruto has not raced in 2024, but this one should be tight at the top nonetheless. There are four other men in the field from Ethiopia and Kenya that have cracked 2:06 before.

Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo will be making his marathon debut, and he comes in with quite an impressive resume. His Olympic hopes were dashed with a fall at the Kenyan Trials over 10,000m, but in 2023 he took silver in Budapest on the track and then won silver in the half marathon at the World Road Running Championships a month later.

On the American side, it won’t be as star-studded as the women’s race, particularly as next month’s New York Marathon features U.S. 1-2 Conner Mantz and Clayton Young, but CJ Albertson, Zach Panning, and Brian Shrader should still make for an interesting race as they chase fast times and top-10 honors.