about 1 percent<\/a> of 240,000 applicants made it in.<\/p>\nThe 9+1 program, on the other hand, provides a guaranteed way for New York-area runners to get into the marathon. In 2025, there was a 7 percent increase in runners who completed the 9+1. NYRR doesn\u2019t publicize exact numbers but well more than a quarter of all 2026 entrants to the marathon will be people who completed the 9+1 program last year.<\/p>\n
And that demand for 9+1 entry means ever-increasing numbers of people are trying to register for the NYRR weekly races.<\/p>\n
The nonprofit puts on about 40 adult races every year. In 2026, 33 in-person races and three virtual events will be designated as 9+1 qualifiers.<\/p>\n
New York Road Runners can\u2019t simply add more 9+1 events, however. The organization needs to secure permits from the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation and other city agencies for events.<\/p>\n
And they can\u2019t simply add more runners to each event. Permits come with caps on numbers of participants. Then there\u2019s the matter of logistics. The four-mile course in Central Park starts and ends in the same place, with the race\u2019s winners running faster than 5:00 pace. They\u2019ll be done in about 20 minutes, and won\u2019t be able to access the finish line if thousands of people are still trying to cross the start line.<\/p>\n
No easy fixes<\/p>\n
The organization is experimenting with different forms of membership and registration. In 2017, they introduced a \u201cmember plus\u201d option, which is double the price\u2014$126.90 versus $63.45 for an individual membership. Those who belong to member plus get to sign up for races two days early\u2014on a Tuesday instead of on a Thursday.<\/p>\n
Related Story<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not yet had a race that sold out during the member plus period,\u201d Simmelkjaer said, meaning that by the time race registration opens for general members, there are still spots remaining.<\/p>\n
But not many.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started to see that we were coming closer than we would like to get, and that is why we\u2019ve started to experiment with some changes to ensure that that not happen,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the challenge of getting into races grow, especially for regular members.\u201d<\/p>\n
NYRR has been trying different ways to fix it.<\/p>\n
One way is by adding to the number of races that are filled by drawing only. The Manhattan 10K, for instance, became a race that filled by a drawing in 2026, joining the NYC Half and the Brooklyn Half. (The Manhattan 10K in February was canceled due to extreme cold that hit the city. Runners still got credit for the race as one of their 9+1 events, however.)<\/p>\n
The organization has also experimented with putting a cap on the number of people who could enter races during the two-day member plus window, without saying which races those were.<\/p>\n
The results were mixed. On the positive side, more regular members got in. On the negative side, the registration mayhem that was typically reserved for Thursday and the general membership simply started earlier.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I would tell you is that the rush to enter races that we’ve been seeing on the third day, on the day that they go on sale to the general membership, that rush was then just replicated during the member plus period,\u201d Simmelkjaer said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a work in progress, and the organization hopes to have better solutions in place next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at a broad set of changes for 2027 that will likely be a little more comprehensive, potentially, than what we\u2019ve been doing this year,\u201d Simmelkjaer said. \u201cIf we\u2019re testing this year, we\u2019ll look to do something a little bit broader for next year to help solve this in a more systemic way.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"2026](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ae8474b3-dfe2-45be-a3a5-9c3d64f24270.jpeg\" "\\"2026")
New York Road Runners\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Runners cross the Brooklyn Bridge during the 2026 NYC Half.<\/p>\n
Something lost<\/p>\n
In the rush of members trying to register for races\u2014in hopes of securing a bib for the next year\u2019s NYC Marathon\u2014many longtime members feel something has been lost. The community. The camaraderie. Right now, it all just feels a little transactional.<\/p>\n
Shlansky wonders if there\u2019s a separate pathway for those who want to run the marathon and those who don\u2019t. Some races for the folks who want to run the marathon, and then separate races for people who are there just to run and have a good time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a whole different crowd,\u201d Shlansky said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the real spirit and the real heart of running. A lot of people want to do the four-miler, or they want to do the 10K. And those are distances that can be a lot of fun for the general population, but there isn\u2019t any room for them because of all this nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sandra Allen-Bard has been an NYRR since the 1980s. She guesses she\u2019s run the Mini\u2014the women\u2019s 10K every June that started in 1972 as the first women\u2019s-only race\u201420 times. But she couldn\u2019t get in last year or this year. She\u2019s a nurse practitioner and she couldn\u2019t wait online to register at the appointed hour. She simply stopped doing races after the Mini in 2024. The hassle became too much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have no loyalty to those that have been running with them forever,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s lost the community feel. I was going to write a letter to New York Road Runners telling them my grief. It\u2019s been years I can\u2019t get in a race, and I don’t have a job that I could sit and wait in that waiting room for hours to get online to get in a race.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andrea Mihalko, 43, hopes the organization can find a way to make everyone happy. For now, she\u2019s mostly staying away from NYRR races.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want new people in the sport,\u201d she said. \u201cI can hear people sort of wanting to shut the doors, and I don\u2019t want to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She remembers how she was a new runner 15 years ago, and how welcoming and encouraging people were.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I had not been able to get into races, maybe I would have stopped back then, instead of 10, 15, years later, still being a runner,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I don\u2019t think we should restrict things. It\u2019s just, how can we be more inclusive? And that may mean that, you know, some of us who have been around a long time say, \u2018You know what? I\u2019ve had my chance. Let\u2019s let some other people do it, you know?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lettermark\"](\"https:\/\/www.runnersworld.com\/_assets\/design-tokens\/runnersworld\/static\/images\/logos\/lettermark.de74602.svg?primary=%2523000\")
<\/p>\n
Sarah Lorge Butler is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner\u2019s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lisabeth Shlansky doesn\u2019t remember exactly where she was on the evening of the most recent New York Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[567,72023,569,568,9,11,10,49,51,50,63712,72022],"class_list":["post-178119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-e8be2338-31dd-456e-8bbe-5eed70371958","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-locale-us","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-read_time-7","tag-shorttitle-local-runners-struggle-to-get-into-nyrr-races"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}