INFLUENCER Alexa Curtis has angered the running community after cutting into a race without registering and then boasting about her run time on Instagram.
Curtis, 26, says she posted the victory video as an inspiration to other people struggling with mental health.
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“I just ran 13.1 miles for the Brooklyn half marathon at a 7:43 minute pace. I didn’t walk at all. I cried during a lot of it. I went to bed at 10 PM,” she wrote in the caption of the controversial Instagram post.
“I didn’t sign up for this race. I just asked the security where it started and where it ended and jumped in,” she added.
The influencer explained that she did it for her mental health.
“The only person I relied on to show up and cross that finish line today was myself,” Alexa_Curtis (@alexa_curtis) wrote on Instagram to her more than 20,000 followers.
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But some runners have said she is a “bandit” — someone who runs an official race without registering.
A MARATHON BANDIT?
Bandits often take advantage of the race infrastructure and services without paying their dues.
Some runners posted on social media criticizing her decision to run on the fly.
“You are a bandit and you stole from this race and this community. These things are expensive and for charity, shame on you,” HungryGames2000 (@HungryGames2000) commented in X shortly after she first shared the clip.
Curtis quickly responded to the comment by telling the user that she had recently lost $17,000 in a bad business deal and asking them if there were “any wins and losses you wanna mention on Twitter?”
She later answered to the larger backlash in a separate social media post on Monday.
“I did not realize I would offend so many people,” she wrote.
“The post was meant to be inspirational and I had no intention to take anything from anyone or the race: I was running for myself for my mental health.”
RACE OFFICIALS UNHAPPY
The NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half Marathon that Curtis ran had more people register than ever this year, officials said.
“We had a record number of runners at Sunday’s NYCRUNS Brooklyn Half Marathon with over 21,000 official finishers,” NYCRUNS said in a statement on Monday to The New York Post.
You are a bandit and you stole from this race and this community. These things are expensive and for charity, shame on you.
HungryGames2000
Running without registering is unfair to other participants and can be perilous if a medical problem occurs.
“Our top priority is the safety and well-being of every one of those runners, and the bib that every runner wears is their lifeline if a medical issue arises on the course,” the race officials continued.
“It’s dangerous to run in a race without a bib, and it’s also not fair to the thousands of runners who are.”
NYCRUNS representatives said they frowned on Curtis’ behavior but did not feel like she had any bad motives, noting that she was visiting from overseas.
“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,” the statement read.
Curtis promised not to make the same mistake again in her last post.
“In the future, I’ll be sure to look up the rules if I decide to run again,” she said.
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