Chicago Marathon Training and Thigh Chafing: Why Runners Book Legs in October, Not April

The short version: a full course of leg laser takes six sessions spaced four to six weeks apart, which is roughly seven months of calendar. The Chicago Marathon runs the second Sunday of October. If you want smooth legs for a race, the sessions have to happen in the off season, because we cannot treat tanned or sunburned skin and you cannot sweat for 24 hours after a session. Starting in October means you finish before your summer training block. Starting in April means you spend the whole block rescheduling.

The scheduling problem nobody warns runners about

Every spring we get the same call. Someone has signed up for the Chicago Marathon, they have been dealing with inner thigh chafing and stubble burn under compression shorts for two seasons, and they want it handled before race day in October.

By April, it is already too late to do it cleanly.

Here is why. Leg laser is not one appointment. Hair grows in cycles, and the laser only damages a follicle that is actively growing, so we treat the same area six or more times to catch each follicle in the right phase. On legs, sessions start about four weeks apart and stretch to five or six weeks as growth slows. Six sessions is roughly seven months. Some people need eight.

Now put that seven months on top of a marathon calendar. The Chicago Marathon is held the second Sunday in October, which puts most 18-week training blocks starting in early June. An April start means sessions four, five, and six land in July, August, and September. Those are the worst possible months for laser and the worst possible months to lose training days.

What actually goes wrong with a spring start

Three things, and they compound.

Tan. We do not treat tanned skin, and that is not a preference. The laser targets melanin, and tanned skin has more of it competing for the same energy. Treating a tan risks burns and pigment changes. If you are doing long runs on the Lakefront Trail in July, your quads and calves are tanned whether you meant to or not, and the runner’s tan line at the mid thigh is one of the more common reasons we reschedule someone in summer.

Sweat. After a session you skip workouts, saunas, and hot tubs for 24 hours, and swimming for three days. Fresh follicles are open and warm skin plus salt is how you end up with folliculitis. In February, giving up a day is nothing. In peak block, it means moving a tempo run or a long run, and most runners will not do that, so they train anyway and then call us about bumps.

Sun exposure after. We ask for SPF 50 and minimal sun on treated skin for several days. That is a hard ask for someone running four to six hours a week outdoors in Chicago summer.

There is a version of the spring start that works, which is treating only the upper inner thigh under running shorts where sun never reaches. We do that. It just is not the same thing as full legs.

What laser does and does not do for chafing

Time to be careful here, because this is where clinics tend to oversell.

Chafing is friction plus moisture plus salt. Removing hair does not remove friction. If your thighs touch, they will still touch at mile 18, and you will still want a balm or longer shorts.

What laser does fix is the second kind of chafing, the kind runners create for themselves. If you shave your legs the night before a long run, you are running on stubble, and stubble under compression fabric behaves like fine sandpaper. Add sweat and a seven day shaving cycle and you get razor burn, ingrown hairs, and folliculitis along the inner thigh and the sock line. That whole category goes away when the follicle stops producing.

The men we treat for chest and back before triathlon season report the same thing. Less stubble means less catching on fabric and fewer irritated follicles under a wetsuit or a tri kit. We have a separate page on laser hair removal for men in Chicago if that is the version you are after.

So: laser solves stubble, razor burn, and ingrowns. It does not solve skin on skin friction. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling.

A real calendar, October to race day

This is the schedule we actually build for runners. It assumes a start the week after this year’s marathon and a target of next year’s race.

A full legs session takes about 45 minutes. Six sessions gets most runners where they want to be, and after that it is usually one maintenance visit a year. Details on the leg laser hair removal page.

If you are reading this in late summer, you have missed the window for this October. Book for the week after the race instead. That is the single most useful piece of timing advice in this post.

Scheduling around training days

A few practical rules from clients who have done this while training.

Book the session on a rest day or the day before one. The 24 hour no sweat window is the only real constraint, and it is easier to plan around than people expect.

Do not book the week of a race, even a tune up half. Mild redness for a few hours is normal and we would rather you not discover your own reaction on a start line. We wrote about what redness after laser is and is not if you want the detail.

Shave the night before, do not wax. Waxing pulls the follicle out and there is nothing left for the laser to find. Three weeks minimum without waxing or plucking before a session.

Expect shedding, not instant smoothness. Treated hairs push out over one to three weeks and it can look like regrowth. Here is what shedding looks like and how to help it along.

Aftercare is Aquaphor or Vaseline three times a day and SPF 50 on treated skin. Full protocol is on our post laser care page.

If you have deeper skin

Plenty of clinics still tell runners with Fitzpatrick V and VI skin that laser is not for them. That was true on older single wavelength machines. It is not true on ours.

We run the Candela GentleMax Pro Plus, which carries a 755 nm Alexandrite and a 1064 nm Nd:YAG in the same machine and is FDA cleared for permanent hair reduction across all six Fitzpatrick types. The 1064 is what makes deeper skin safe to treat, and it is why we can take clients who were turned away elsewhere. There is a longer explanation on our post about the Nd:YAG 1064 nm and dark skin.

The tan rule still applies regardless of your baseline skin tone. A tan is a change from your baseline, and the settings are built around your baseline.

What it costs

A full legs session is $325. Six session packages bring the per session price down, and every number we charge is published on our Chicago laser hair removal prices page rather than quoted at checkout.

For context on the trade: if you are shaving your legs twice a week through a training block and buying razor cartridges and a balm for the chafing, the leg package pays for itself somewhere in year three or four. That is a real comparison, not a sales line, and it is the same math we run for anyone asking whether a package makes sense.

If you are treating more than legs, the full body option is priced better per area than booking pieces separately.

Booking in Old Town

We are at 1317 N Larrabee St, Chicago, IL 60610, in Old Town on the Near North Side. Runners from Lincoln Park, the Gold Coast, River North, and Wicker Park are all within about ten minutes, and the Lakefront Trail access at North Avenue Beach is a short run from our door, which is how several of our current clients found us. Clients also come from West Loop, South Loop, Oak Park, and Cicero.

The Sedgwick Brown Line stop is a four block walk. There is free street and garage parking by the building.

Every first time client gets a free 20 minute consultation with a patch test before we treat anything. It is required, and there is no deposit and no obligation to book that day.

V&P Laser Hair Removal & Skin Care 1317 N Larrabee St, Chicago, IL 60610 Phone: (252) 557-7113 Hours: Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Appointment only, no walk ins. We speak English, Romanian, and Russian.

Book a free consultation or call us and we will build the calendar backward from your race date.

Questions runners ask

How long before a marathon should I start laser hair removal on my legs?

About seven months for a full six session course, so a start in October for a race the following October. If you can only give it four months, we can usually get through four sessions, which reduces stubble and ingrowns without finishing the job.

Can I run the same day as a laser session?

No. Skip workouts, saunas, and hot tubs for 24 hours after a session, and swimming for three days. Sweat in freshly treated follicles is the most common cause of post session bumps.

Will laser hair removal stop thigh chafing?

Not on its own. Chafing is skin on skin friction and laser does not change that. It does eliminate stubble rash, razor burn, and ingrown hairs along the inner thigh, which is what most runners are actually describing when they say chafing.

Can I get laser after a summer of running outside?

Not on tanned skin. We ask for about four weeks without sun exposure or self tanner before a session, which is the practical argument for treating in Chicago winter instead of Chicago summer.

Do you treat men’s legs?

Yes, along with chest, back, and shoulders. Cyclists and triathletes are a steady part of our schedule. See the men’s page.

How many sessions until I see a difference?

Most people notice thinner regrowth after two or three. Full result on legs lands around session six, sometimes eight or nine for coarser hair.