Running Influencer Has Heartfelt Apology for Mistake During New York City Marathon

A running influencer took to social media to issue a response to them being banned from New York races.

Nov 3, 2024; New York City, New York, US; Elite women runners are shown on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge during the start of the New York City Marathon. / Kevin R. Wexler-NorthJersey.com / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The 2024 edition of the New York City Marathon was a smashing success. Already one of the most popular road races in the world, more than 55,000 people participated this year.

When you add in the 2+ million spectators and more than 10,000 people who volunteered their time to ensure things went off without a hitch, you have the largest marathon gathering of all time.

That is something everyone can be proud that they took part in, yet the most popular headline from the event wasn’t a positive one.

Running influencer, Matt Choi, who participated in the race as a runner, has been erased from the results of the 2024 New York City Marathon. He had an impressive time of 2:57, but he is now facing the consequences of his actions.

The decision was made because he had a camera crew on two E-Bikes recording his run.

As a result, he also received a lifetime ban from all New York Road Race events after a review of the incident. Other runners were obstructed by the bikes, which was one of the reasons the ban was handed down.

It is a punishment that Choi is accepting of, as he takes full responsibility for his actions. In a recent post shared on Instagram, he issued an apology for what he did as he knows it was the wrong thing to do.

“I f----- up,” he said in a video posted to Instagram. “I was selfish on Sunday.”

“Choi made it clear in his video that he understood the consequences of his actions. “We endangered other runners. We impacted people going for PBs. We blocked people from getting water. And with the New York City Marathon being about everyone else and about the community, I made it about myself.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Matt Choi (@mattchoi_6)

While some of the comments are still quite nasty toward Choi, it was a stand-up thing to apologize and accept the penalty levied against him. Even though he is allowed to appeal the lifetime ban, he said in the video that he will not be doing that.

The decision to have people on E-Bikes follow him during the race has impacted him in more ways than one. In addition to the lifetime ban, Sarah Lorge Butler of Runners World also shared that he has lost his partnership with Runna, a training program and app.

“We have decided to terminate our relationship with Matt effective immediately,” said the COO of Runna in a statement posted to Let’sRun message boards.