I’ll be in Chicago for business in a couple days and need to squeeze in a 2.5 hr run while I’m there, probably get started about 5am. Staying at Club Quarters on Wacker and Michigan. Thinking about making my way over to Lake Shore Drive and heading south. Would that work? Is there a sidewalk along Lake Shore?
Yes…I was just in Chicago a couple weeks back…Lakeshore Drive has a really cool path that runs parallel to it that can accommodate your long run. Watch out for the folks on bikes in the busier/narrower parts…but it’s mostly wide open. I found no easy access to water along the way…so carry some if you can.
Best way to get there is to run over to Millennium Park and cross over Lakeshore Drive at the light on the Southeast corner of the park. From there you can go North or South. I ran an hour North and was not even close to running out of path…probably the same situation running South.
Enjoy!
I think there’s no. When I was in Chicago for couple of days on business tour, I was also looking for the way along lake shore. But I didn’t find it. I had to drive on express way to reach my place. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Paul Holtz
Watches
Go to the Lakeshore path. Just head east and you literally cannot miss it. It runs about 25 miles, uninterrupted, along the shore. I would suggest heading north. Not sure how the other poster didn’t see it, but there is plenty of water…drinking fountains about every mile at most. Also, there is a crushed limestone running path along the shoulder in many places along the way.
I live in Chicago and have run the path too many times. Take the route S. Shearer advises over to the park.
North or south? Depends what day and time.
If it is a weekday during business hours, I’d run north. Easy to follow. Plenty of water stops. Take some money and there are stands you can buy water or gatorade. You’ll be able to follow this for 1:15 and turn around.
If you are running on a weekend, I would definitely go south. North of the Loop is often a madhouse of beach-goers, bikers, large marathon-training mobs, etc. Granted, it thins out the farther north you go, but it’s still a pain.
Going south, follow path around the museum campus (you’ll run around the aquarium) and just keep going. Farther south gets a little more desolate (relatively), but that’s why I love it. There are plenty of water fountains going south as well. Again, you can run for 1:15 and turn around.
I have run there many times. In addition to the above, when you run north you will go right past Lincoln Park. It is a nice place to throw in a loop around the park. A HUGE bonus is that the Lincoln Park Zoo is free and open very early in the morning. It has always been open for me at 6ish with only maintenance workers around. I love running through the zoo. I wrote about one trip in The Lion Roared
Enjoy!
Agreed with previous posters. Weekdays, run north from downtown on the Lakeshore path and you get to run along the beaches and through Lincoln Park. Weekend, run south on the path and it will be relatively quiet. If you run north on the weekend, the area between Ohio Street Beach and Fullerton Ave can be an adventure to say the least, with bikes, tourists, strollers, runners, roller bladers, and beach goers; although you certainly will not be bored. Either way you go there are water fountains.
This is excellent information and exactly what I was hoping for, thanks everyone!
I’ll be starting at about 5am, would that make a difference as to whether I should go north or south, from a lighting perspective? Are there streetlamps or dense tree cover? I could always bring my Petzl if there won’t be enough ambient light.
It’s my experience there are more trees going north than south, but nothing I’d consider dense. No streetlamps that I recall, but the sun rises right over the lake so should be no problem with lighting. I appreciate the views more going north as well, but the trade-off there is a LOT more people. Going south is less scenic, but very low traffic. Of course at 5am, shouldn’t have too much of a problem either north or south.
There’s also a very distance-friendly swim beach downtown: Ohio Street Beach. It’s right along the breakwater wall, and I’m told people have marked it for distance…1/4 mile, 1/2 mile, etc.
Paul… my man- how in the world could you miss it? There are tons and tons of roads that dump you out on to the path on to the east side of lake shore drive.
The river walk is right across the street from your hotel. I’m pretty sure it takes you right to the lake path (Confirm with your concierge). North is busier/livelier (beaches, beautiful people, tourists, strollers). South is quieter.
I’d recommend starting South and running through the museum Campus. Run by Soldier Field. Run to McCormick Place.
Then turn around and head back North. Run past all the beaches. Run through Lincoln Park. Run around Wrigley Field if you’re a baseball fan. Plenty of options. And no worries about water. There are drinking fountains the entire way.
here are some maps of the trail: http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/resources/beaches/#lakefront_map
Note: If it’s dark out, use caution. It’s reasonably safe, but anybody running in the city needs to be alert. North is generally safer than South. But North is not immune to incidents.
At that time in the am, I would run north from downtown. The north side is marginally safer with a few more runners out at that time. Lighting won’t be a problem with the sun coming up, a few lights along the path, and the street lights from LSD. Enjoy your time here!
I now prefer running south, there will be some elevation change, nothing hilly but at least its not pancake flat.
Not sure where all the safety talk is coming from, all the assaults this summer were on the north side. 
Here’s a handy little guide for you. http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/resources/beaches/pdf/Lakefront_Trail_Map_complete.pdf The black line running basically parallel to Lake Shore Drive is the path that everyone’s talking about. Breathtaking views at sunrise, so if you have a wee camera, you should bring it. Bring your wetsuit if you want to get a swim in, and head to Ohio Street Beach (again, look at the little handout that I’ve linked to - it’s inset number 5) especially on Saturday mornings. (Bring a lock or bring nothing with you. Advise against bringing your wallet.) Can also check out Steve’s schedule at www.openwaterchicago.org - he’s out many mornings early, and swims out of a portion of Oak Street Beach. Cool guy. Go to www.chicagotriclub.com and make some friends while you’re here. Note that you can walk/run on a path by the river (a story or so below street level) from your hotel to the lakeshore, but I wouldn’t do that at 5AM. I’m a chick, so I’m more cautious than most, but it’s not well populated at that time and I just think that taking the streets would be safer. You could run north down Michigan Avenue (would be pretty cool at that time of day) and then turn east on Ohio - there’s a little tunnel with stairs that you go down to get to the path from there. From there run north until the path turns on itself, which you can’t miss. Or you could actually run south on Michigan to Balbo (or so) run past Buckingham fountain, go across Lake Shore Drive and then take the path north, which will take you past Navy Pier - and you’ll eventually hit Ohio Street Beach and such north. The Lake Shore Path (also called the Lake Shore Bike Path if you want to google it) goes around the museums, too (south of what I’ve described for you), and that’s fun to throw into the mix.
You’ll appreciate the path, I think! Have a great visit, and bring some salt tabs. We’ve had some hot weather lately…
Thanks everyone, this really is excellent detail and I really appreciate everyone’s thoroughness. I think I’ll most likely end up going north, but tomorrow night in my hotel room I’ll take a closer look at all the links that everyone has provided and will map out my route. I like Bellytri’s idea of heading north on Michigan than east on Ohio; I looked up the aerial view on Bing Maps. Then maybe on the return trip I’ll go down to Balbo and around the fountain and back north on Michigan to my hotel. I’m definitely looking forward to this run more than any long run in recent memory I live out in the country and my runs are pretty isolated so this will be a nice change of pace. Even better, I’ll be going into an all-day meeting after my run so I can scarf down some guilt-free muffins and danishes
I did this run a few weeks ago, I only have one idea to add which is to think about taking the south side of the river path and seeing the riverfront, it doesn’t go very far west but it’s pretty and at an early hour shouldn’t be busy.