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More than 55,000 runners competed in the New York City Marathon this year, but one of them ended up banned from the event for the rest of his life thanks to the camera crew that made life difficult for other runners during the race.
The New York City Marathon is held on the first Sunday in November, and a good chunk of the city comes to a halt due to the road closures that facilitate the 26.2-mile race that kicks off in Staten Island before participants make their way through all five boroughs prior to crossing the finish line in Central Park.
Plenty of New Yorkers used to take advantage of those closures to take an unimpeded ride through the streets of NYC before the practice was banned prior to this year’s race, which means the only wheeled transportation allowed on the course involves the wheelchair participants who kick things off, emergency personnel, and the smattering of vehicles home to cameras tracking the elite runners who precede the tens of thousands of people who aren’t in it for the money.
The use of a pirate camera crew tracking an individual runner on e-bikes is firmly prohibited, but according to Runners World, that didn’t stop Matthew Choi—a running influencer who’s racked up over 400,000 followers on Instagram—from recruiting a couple of people to ride along with him during a race where he posted a time of 2:57:15 (an impressive pace of 6:44 per mile).
Choi’s pace meant he wasn’t amid the densely crowded packs you’ll usually encounter among people who finish a marathon closer to the four-hour mark, but anyone who’s run a marathon before (as Choi had) knows there’s a reason bikers aren’t allowed to mingle with runners during the race.
New York Road Runners, which oversees the NYC Marathon, launched an investigation after Choi’s entourage was brought to its attention and determined they were guilty of “obstructing runners” before announcing he’d been retroactively disqualified and banned from all future iterations of the event (as well as other races they conduct).
Choi has the opportunity to appeal the ruling, but he said he has no plans to do so in a video where he took “full accountability” for his ill-advised attempt to capture content while apologizing to the runners who were impacted by the e-bikes.
I’m sure he’ll continue to be villanized by plenty of people thanks to the unforgiving nature of the internet, but credit where credit is due for owning up to his misstep and taking the punishment he earned in full stride.