The 12 best places for running in Chicago

Arguably the most popular trail in the city, Chicago’s Lakefront Trail runs for more than 18 miles from the very north end of Lincoln Park all the way down to 71st Street. The trail passes by several beaches, including Edgewater Beach, North Avenue Beach and Rainbow Beach Park, as well as some of the city’s most famous cultural sites, from crowded Navy Pier to the Museum Campus and Grant Park. Not only is the trail an easy way to rack up some miles, it also offers some of the best views of the city, no matter which direction you’re headed.

One of the city’s newer areas of green space, the 606, or Bloomingdale Trail, was once a disused train line. After two years of construction, Chicago’s first elevated park opened in 2015 with a trail that connects the Wicker Park, Bucktown, Logan Square and Humboldt Park neighborhoods. From end-to-end, the 606 is 2.7 miles long, so either call it a day when you’ve finished going across once, or circle around to add some extra distance. Not only does the trail have an excellent paved surface and great views of the city’s skyline, but it has another feature that’s crucial to a great long run: water fountains and public-use bathrooms.

The distance of what’s considered a long run is different for every runner. While some ultramarathoners can run 50 miles in one go, other runners might consider anything over a mile a long distance. If you’re still working on building up your endurance, try running two miles along the 16th Street murals in Pilsen to transform your long run into an artistic experience. Starting at Halsted Street, 16th Street boasts a stretch of unparalleled murals that run along the walls of an old railroad embankment. Jog along to see some work by local street artists Hebru Brantley, Amuse and Chris Silva.

There are plenty of convenient ways to get to the North Shore from the city—taking the Metra, the CTA, driving or taking a long run along the North Branch Trail. The trail system, which is managed by the Forest Preserves of Cook County, offers up 36.7 miles of both paved and unpaved trails that connect Chicago with nearby suburbs like Skokie, Winnetka, Glenview, Morton Grove, Niles, Northbrook and Northfield. The main paved trail runs for 16 miles along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Running outdoors is great, when the weather allows it, but Chicago's climate can be notoriously ruthless. That doesn’t mean you have to sit inside all winter long—you can still log miles at one of the city’s indoor tracks, including the Dr. Conrad Worrill Track and Field Center in Chicago’s Pullman neighborhood. The facility houses a 200-meter track and while it can be repetitive to repeatedly run in a circle, the loop is hydraulically banked, which allows the curves of the path to move up and down. This helps runners practice running on a sloped surface, so it adds some variety into a long run.

Chicago is a famously flat city, which is great if you’re trying to score a fast time during the Chicago Marathon, but not if you want to go on a run with some elevation. Instead, head out to the Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve in suburban Darien—approximately 23 miles from the city. Waterfall Glen Forest Preserve has a 9.5-mile long gravel-lined loop that goes around the entire preserve and climbs more than 170 feet from its lowest to its highest point.

Perfect for anyone training for a half marathon, the North Shore Channel Trail is a 13-mile long trail that runs from Evanston and heads south into the Lincoln Square neighborhood. The route traces its way along the North Shore Channel, a drainage canal built in the early 20th century. Two miles of the trail also run through the Skokie Northshore Sculpture Park, a free-to-visit outdoor park with more than 60 sculptures on display, including “Inside Plant” by Massachusetts-based artist Andy Zimmermann, a massive plant-like steel sculpture.

When it was first built in the 19th century, Humboldt Park was renowned for its lagoon, beautiful gardens and horse trails. Nowadays, it’s not much different, except instead of horses trotting along the park’s trails, there’s people running. The most scenic trail in the park is the lagoon and beach loop, which spans 2.1 miles around Humboldt Park’s showpiece lagoon. The outer loop trail is just a bit longer, at 2.2 miles, and spans the exterior of the park.

Just because the Ray Meyer Fitness and Recreation Center is on DePaul’s campus doesn’t mean it’s only for students. The gym, lovingly called "The Ray" by DePaul students, offers memberships to community members, as well as its faculty, staff and students. "The Ray" offers a view of the Chicago skyline from the large windows that line the east side of the four-lane, 200-meter track, which can motivate runners to add more laps just to get another view. If you want to take a quick break from running, the gym’s track also has free-weight equipment located on both of its banked curves.

Chances are that unless you’re training for an ultramarathon, you won’t want to run the entire 61 miles of the Illinois Prairie Path in one go, but it’s an ideal trail system to run in segments. It’s broken up into three main branches—the 16-mile long Elgin branch, the 14-mile long Aurora branch and the 15-mile long Main Stem, which connects the trail system with the Forest Park CTA station—as well as several smaller branches. Most of the trails culminate in suburban Wheaton, approximately 28 miles from Chicago. The trail network mainly runs through DuPage County, but also extends into Kane and Cook Counties as well. All of the Illinois Prairie Path’s branches are conveniently lined with mile markers, making it easy to keep track of how far you’ve gone and how much is left in your long run.

Many people prefer trail running because it has less impact on your bones and joints compared to running on pavement. But in a city like Chicago, it can be hard to find an expansive trail to take a long run. Conveniently, the Palos Forest Preserve lies 22 miles away from the city at the edge of Cook County. The forest preserve is a 15,000-acre expanse of wildlife that contains the Palos Trail System. The multi-trail system has more than 40 miles of different trails, the longest of which is the “Yellow Unpaved” trail, at 9.2 miles.

Spanning more than 1,200 acres across the city’s North Side, Lincoln Park is the largest park in Chicago, and it makes sense that it would have plenty of trails and sidewalks for runners to utilize. A popular 4.1-mile loop around the park starts with a one-mile run from the end of the North Avenue Beach Pier and circles around the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum before heading back to the starting point. To log some extra miles, join up with the Lakefront Trail, which runs along the shore through the entirety of Lincoln Park.