When Chef Tee Cozy traces up for the Chicago Marathon on Sunday, October 12, 2025, it’ll be the eleventh time the top chef from Cozy Noodles n’ Rice, a Thai restaurant in Wrigleyville, Illinois, has run the race. If there’s one factor obvious within the opening scenes of this new brief movie — the debut within the new PACE SETTERS sequence by iRunFar in partnership with HOKA — it’s that Chef Tee, who moved to Chicago from Thailand in 1996, loves his metropolis. He additionally loves operating. And he brings that very same sense of affection to all he does.
[Editor’s Note: Click here to watch the full film on YouTube.]
With the looming Chicago Marathon, we study what the occasion means to Chef Tee, who got here to the U.S. in the hunt for alternative, and within the meantime, discovered neighborhood and which means in operating. What began as one thing finished for train and enjoyable, operating turned a central tenet in Tee’s life after a good friend inspired him to use for the 2014 Chicago Marathon. He nonetheless seems to be shocked when describing the expertise of getting accepted all these years later. After taking almost eight hours to finish that first marathon, he by no means appeared again. “I’ve to say operating modified my life. It undoubtedly modified my life in one of the best ways.”
Chef Tee in his restaurant, Cozy Noodles ‘n Rice. All pictures are screenshots from the movie “Chicago, Meet the Chef Who Loves You.”
However there’s extra to operating for Tee than the easy act of placing one foot in entrance of the following. It’s about neighborhood, friendship, setting targets, and bringing love into the whole lot he does. The truth that operating usually mirrors life, or life mirrors operating, isn’t misplaced on Tee when he says, “Operating might help me create one thing good in my life, too.”
Having raced the Chicago Marathon 10 instances now, Tee shares tales of the neighborhood that has gathered round him over time. His household waits for him on the identical spot annually, his prospects collect between miles seven and 9 to cheer him on, and he hosts a free carb-loading meal for any Chicago Marathon runner.
Chef Tee heads into his restaurant, Cozy Noodles n’ Rice.
Tee clearly goals to imbue the whole lot he does with love. In his restaurant, he says, “All people had meals, however should you can add up some love and happiness and keenness into your meals and serve it, and within the place you could have, I ought to have extra success too.” He explains, “In my tradition, we all know one another, we speak, we’re very honest. Right here, typically, if we don’t know one another effectively, we don’t present what’s in our coronary heart.” Tee reveals what’s in his coronary heart. In his operating, he’s fast to specific his gratitude for his operating neighborhood, for the streets of Chicago, and for the folks within the metropolis.
Chef Tee and his operating neighborhood.
This movie is a reminder that there’s a lot extra to operating than meets the attention, and everybody who laces up a pair of footwear has their very own causes for displaying up. With earnestness, Tee reminds us of the significance of targets, of displaying up for ourselves and our communities, and of current in an area of gratitude and appreciation.
Chef Tee operating on the streets of Chicago.
[Editor’s Note: This article is sponsored by HOKA. Thank you to HOKA for its sponsorship of iRunFar, which helps to make iRunFar happen and free for all to enjoy. Learn more about our sponsored articles.]
