SKECHERS Hot Chocolate Run Chicago

About This Event

This race exists because its founder likes hot chocolate. RAM Racing CEO Steve Ginsburg, a Buffalo Grove-based race producer, built the whole concept around the drink he has daily the way other people have coffee — a genuinely odd origin story for what's become one of the biggest race franchises in the country. It started right here in Chicago in 2008.

The series has since expanded to more than a dozen cities nationwide, and it's been described as the fastest-growing race series in the country, with well over 200,000 cumulative participants across every city it's run in. The Chicago edition alone has drawn crowds in the tens of thousands in past years — this isn't a small local fun run anymore.

The format hasn't drifted from the original idea: 5K, 10K, and 15K distances plus a 2-mile walk option, Grant Park on a cold November morning, a finisher's mug of actual hot chocolate instead of a medal nobody ends up displaying, and a post-race party built around chocolate fondue instead of the usual bananas and bagels.