After the Friends of the Poor 5K turnaround/running beside the MMRF 5K walkers As I mentioned in my Newcity review of the Friends of the Poor 5K Run/Walk , there are a ton of races in Chicago (and a truly incredible amount of them if you count all the races in the entire Chicagoland area). Yesterday morning I ran only one of them, but because of the way this race and another (the MMRF Race for Research 5K Walk/Run ) had mapped out their courses I basically ran both. That breakdown is in my Newcity review , but I thought I'd give a bit more information here. I overheard some of the race organizers talking about the situation and thought it was pretty interesting. They said that everyone basically goes into the Chicago permit office around the same time at the start of the year and applies for their Special Event Permit . When they get their permit they're not informed about whether or not anyone else applied for (and received) a permit for a similar event nearby.
Some stuff about Chicago.