A running group hunting elevation where there shouldn’t be any.
Chicago Mountain Runners is an independent, open running group built around a simple idea: the city is flat, so we make our own mountains. We meet at local (trash) hills, sledding slopes and overlooked pieces of elevation and run them until they add up to something.
- Show up, run the hill, repeat.
- Totally Free. No Fees.
- Any pace, everybody welcome.
- First-timers to ultra-marathoners.
From mountains to molehills.
I've spent a good part of my life finding ways to go uphill. It started with endurance sports and eventually led to ice climbing, mountaineering, and several years climbing in the Cascades and Canadian Rockies.
After a few years away, a rather spontaneous six-hour race in January 2024, with temperatures around -20°F, introduced me to ultrarunning. Twelve ultras later, including a 100-mile trail race, I'm still finding reasons to keep going.
Training for mountain races while living in Chicago presents an obvious problem. So I started making the most of what we have: sledding hills, park inclines, and the occasional pile of dirt. Enough repeats, and a surprisingly small hill becomes a legitimate workout.
Chicago Mountain Runners grew out of that idea. A running group for people who enjoy climbing, want to get better at it, or are simply curious about how far a little elevation can go.
Michael Whitaker
Founder & Director
Chicago Mountain Runners
Hills on hills on hills.
Small hills. Repeated climbs. More elevation than you'd expect. Explore the places we run around Chicago.
Explore the hills
JUST SHOW UP.
No membership fee. No pace requirement. No complicated initiation ritual. Find a run, show up and climb the same hill until it means something.