Can you change pens when you run the New York City Marathon?

The New York City Marathon technically has 3 exits, which do not converge for about 8 miles. These exits are assigned colors that correspond to the race map. The green exit is on the left and has a nice tour of Brooklyn, the orange exit is in the center and goes to the left side of the Verazano-Narrows Bridge, and the blue exit starts all the way to the right and continues on the side right of the bridge.

The orange start is reserved for the 9000 fastest women. The pens are moved in the order of the expected finish time between the blue and green exits. Based on my race number when I ran the race, I was supposed to line up in front of the green exit just behind the local competitive men. My friend, who I was going to walk to, was supposed to start a couple of pens on the blue side.

Depending on where you look on the New York City website, there are different rules about where you can and cannot start if you want to run with someone else. The FAQ page outlines a process that requires you to move to a pen for numbers 18,000 or more if you want to change pens, unless your bib is already higher, in which case you can start in the pen that is higher. behind. from the beginning among the group that wants to run together.

Fortunately, that is not the actual rule. After discussing the matter with the race directors, here is the official word that was relayed:

If you want to run with another person but are assigned different pens, you can. However, you must go to the corral that is further back of the two, and if you are male you cannot start in any of the orange corrals that are specified for women only under any circumstances. Your is it so You are allowed to change colors if you wish, as long as you are in a slower starting pen than the one assigned.

From what I’ve noticed, the pens are not heavily guarded anyway. When my friend and I ran, we started 4 or 5 corrals further back than we were entitled to, which helped us come out with the slow pace we were looking for early in the race. There were a lot of people ahead of us who shouldn’t have been, but we didn’t care.

My advice is that you go to the starting line with your friends and choose the corral that will go over the top level of the bridge where everyone can start.