Runners shalt not juggle at the New York City Marathon

This year’s New York City Marathon is fast approaching but the Guinness World Record holder for fastest marathon run while juggling has been delivered some bad news.

Michal Kapral, Toronto runner and former editor-in-chief at Canadian Running, was planning to break his 2007 “joggling” (juggling + jogging) record at this year’s NYC Marathon. Kapral set his 2:50:12 record in 2007 at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. There’s no hope that it will fall in New York this weekend though since his bean bags are among the list of items banned on the course.

“I had been training hard for the past four months for what I had hoped would be my biggest joggling event ever,” he said in his recent blog post adding that his beans bags will just have to wait at home.

The restriction comes with the heightening of security at New York after the 2013 Boston bombings. Banned items at the New York Marathon also include liquids in containers larger than one litre, flammables, mace, toxic chemicals, weapons, selfie sticks, props and any object that could be considered to be dangerous. When Kapral contacted the race to ask about juggling, he was told that his beans bags were “not permissible.”

He won’t be breaking his record this weekend however he seems to be making the best of the situation.

“If you look closely at me on race day, you might notice that I’m actually juggling invisible beanbags (which I hope are allowed),” writes Kapral. “And no, I will not be documenting my race with a drone or a selfie-stick.”