Guaranteed spots in the race will be reserved for time-qualified athletes: men who have completed a marathon in less than three hours and 15 minutes, and women who have finished in less than three hours and 45 minutes on or after Jan. 1, 2012. Also assured spots in the race: people running for charity, wheelchair participants and those who have run the race five or more times in the past decade, marathon officials have announced.
Participants can enter the lottery for the remaining spots anytime between March 5 at 12 p.m. and April 7 at 12 p.m., with names selected at random from the pool on April 14.
There will be a total of 45,000 spots this year, as usual. In the past, those spots were doled out on first-come, first-served basis.
Runners selected through the lottery system who can't run the 2014 race can defer their spot to the 2015 race if they opt to do so before Sept. 8.
The move comes in the wake of overwhelming demand for entry in the race that crashed the marathon's Active.com registration page last year and forced the final 15,000 race bibs to be assigned using a lottery system.
The Chicago Marathon has been one of the final large-scale marathons in the world that did not use a lottery system, allowing runners to enter regardless of running pace.
In recent years, the rush to get into what's now one of the world's most-popular marathons has been ramping up.
In 2010, the race sold out in 51 days, followed by 31 days in 2011 and only six days last year.
The 37th Chicago Marathon will take place on Sunday, Oct. 12.
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