How Banditing a Race Can Harm the Running Community
If you really want to upset the running community, try using social media to brag about running a faster-than-average pace without any training—in a race you never registered for or paid to participate in. Alexa Curtis, a “personal brand entrepreneur,” learned that the hard way this Monday, when she posted a lengthy screed about her “fearless” experience at the NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half Marathon, a sold-out event that drew more than 21,700 official runners.
In a since-deleted post on X, she said she “didn’t sign up for this race. I just asked the security where it started and where it ended and jumped in. … The only person I relied on to show up and cross that finish line today was myself.” Fearless, in this case, seems to mean “the rules don’t apply to me.” Runners instantly flooded her comment section, calling her out as a “bandit” and a “thief” and dubbing her actions unfair, but Curtis doubled down, saying “life’s not fair.”
Later, her publicist said she “decided very last-minute to participate in the Brooklyn Half” and Curtis posted on X saying “I did not realize I would offend so many people. … I had no intention to take anything from anyone or the race … In the future I’ll be sure to look up the rules if I decide to run again.”
What does it mean to bandit a race?
To bandit a race means to run without registering. People do that by starting and finishing without a bib, buying a bib from another runner, producing counterfeit bibs, or running in another person’s place to meet a qualifying standard. (The registration page for the NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half Marathon clearly states “you may not run without a bib.”)
Flouting those rules is problematic for a number of reasons.
Why race banditing is so bad
- It strains resources: Registration fees can be steep. The NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half, for example, ranges between $125 and $140; the NYC Marathon costs $255 to $315. But that money isn’t just for buying finisher medals and tees in bulk or making a profit. “[Fees] cover event planning, road closures, and public safety,” says Randy Accetta, an RRCA-certified race director and founder of Run Tucson, an organization that produces road and trail races at scenic Arizona destinations. “At a high level, the largest cost will be safety and security, so that’ll include police, barricade companies, traffic control, and staffing—the overall staff needed to produce the race from an event organizer perspective is huge,” says Phil Dumontet, CEO of Brooksee and founder of Boulderthon, who oversees 10 races, including the Mesa Marathon, Portland Marathon, and Las Vegas Marathon, which altogether draw about 60,000 participants per year. “Insurance, city permits, Porta Potties, timing chips, medical, and on-course hydration are all big-ticket items, too.” These are all essential elements of a safe
- It’s not safe: Field sizes are capped for a reason. “Whether it’s a 5,000-person race or a 50,000-person race, there is ultimately an impact to the city,” says Dumontet. As a result, the size of the roads and the amount of time a location can realistically shut those down will determine the capacity of the race. Look at a race like the New York City Marathon, which sends its first wave of runners off at around 8 a.m. and its last wave around 12 p.m. “Adding more waves will extend the duration of the race, which isn’t always possible from a city’s perspective, and traffic control, police, security, medical—everyone would just be out there much longer, which will scale the costs upward,” he explains. Dealing with unaccounted for runners further stresses the capacity of everyone involved in the race. “The biggest thing for me is the safety concerns,” says Dumontet. “As a race organizer, you’re basing your infrastructure needs off the total registered participants, so not having a true sense of how many runners are out there could compro
- It’s gross: There’s another major factor at play, too: social media. Curtis’ original post and comments reek of entitlement and willful ignorance, which she tried to walk back via a statement from her publicist, who said that “it was not intentional that she did not sign up, rather she thought it would be a nice way to help spread the word via her platform about the importance of moving your body/working out and the mind-body connection as well as share some nice awareness for the Brooklyn Half.” A social platform isn’t a free pass. “I thin”strconviates the overall staff needed to produce the race from an event organizer perspective is huge,” says Phil Dumontet, CEO of Brooksee and founder of Boulderthon, who oversees 10 races, including the Mesa Marathon, Portland Marathon, and Las Vegas Marathon, which altogether draw about 60,000 participants per year. “Insurance, city permits, Porta Potties, timing chips, medical, and on-course hydration are all big-ticket items, too.” These are all essential elements of a safe racing experience, and “if yo
e the roadways and don’t register, you’re not paying your fair share of these various costs,” says Accetta. “If you use the roadways and don’t register, you’re not paying your share of these various costs.”—Randy Accetta That’s especially pertinent as road racing continues to grow as a sport. The London Marathon recently announced a new world record for race applications: 840,310 people applied to run in 2025, a 45 percent increase over the previous year. The 2024 race had around 53,000 runners; if the race organizers stick with that number, only about six percent of applicants would be accepted. It is getting harder to get into major road races, which creates frustration (especially around events with lottery applications). But that’s not a reason to just jump in.
It’s a dangerous kind of mentality not to consider the bigger picture of everyone involved.”—Phil Dumontet “The way I think about it is, what if everyone did this?” says Dumontet. “If everyone thought, ‘It’s just me jumping into this race,’ but then you have 1,000 runners with that same mentality, it’s very clear that the impact on all the resources of the race would…
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