Comedian Rob Riggle is taking Chicago Marathon seriously

Chicago Marathon runners might find themselves striding next to a familiar face: comedian Rob Riggle.

He’ll be the one covered in vaseline and wearing a T-shirt with the name ‘Rob’ on it.

Riggle, 46, a former “Daily Show” correspondent, took a break from a promotional tour for his new movie “Middle School: The worst years of my life” to chat about the marathon.

On interacting with other runners: “If people will wave and say hit, I’m usually pretty friendly, I’ll wave and say hi back … but I won’t be stopping for any photos.”

Pre race dinner: “Ideally, a steak at Gibsons, but I’ll probably carbo-load on pasta.”

On his earphones: “Everything from AC/DC to Rachel Platten … a mix of inspirational, motivational, butt kicking. That kind of stuff.”

Previous Chicago experience: Standup, improv and partying his face off with pals during spring break freshman year at Kansas State when he came here for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Previous experience with Bill Murray: Riggle sees Murray as a Yoda of sorts. The pair golfed last week at the celebrity portion of the Ryder Cup in Minnesota. “We were on the putting green and we were talking and I was like ‘Man, look at all these people’ and he just kind of looked at me and said ‘Play within yourself.’ It’s one of these throwaway lines, but I was like ‘Yeah, don’t worry about them.’ He probably could have said anything and I would have found some sort of wisdom.”

Running experience: Riggle ran the New York City Marathon 14 years ago in about 5:40. He also hiked 26 miles in the dead of night wearing more than 50 pounds of gear while training to be a Marine when he was 21.

His goal: “To finish. It sucks but I had a calf injury about a month ago and haven’t been able to run. It kind of bummed me out. What’s going to happen is going to happen — just go out there and give it your best.”

Charity: Riggle is running for Salute Inc., a Palatine-based group that helps post-9/11 veterans with short-term financial assistance.

On the Cubs: “I’m a Kansas City guy through and through, but the Royals didn’t make the playoffs. So I’ll probably be throwing my support behind the Cubs as they go forth and do great things.”