NYRR Adds a Lottery to 9+1, Its Guaranteed Path Into the NYC Marathon

For years, New York Road Runners’ 9+1 program has been the dependable way for locals to run their hometown marathon: complete nine qualifying races and volunteer at one during a calendar year, and a guaranteed (paid) entry to the next TCS New York City Marathon was yours. It took patience and a lot of early mornings, but unlike the general drawing that now accepts about 1% of applicants, it was a matter of effort, not luck. That is changing. NYRR announced Wednesday that starting this year, runners will first have to win a free lottery just for the right to pursue 9+1 at all.

How the New 9+1 Works

Under the revamped program, participation in 9+1 will be capped at the 15,000-plus members selected through a new annual drawing. Members can enter the free eligibility drawing on nyrr.org from September 17 to 29, with the draw held on October 1, 2026, and entrants must be NYRR members by September 16 and remain members through drawing day.

Runners who are selected will pay $99, including processing, to become “9+1 Passholders.” From there the deal is familiar: complete nine qualifying races and one qualifying volunteer shift during the 2027 calendar year to earn guaranteed, non-complimentary entry to the 2028 TCS New York City Marathon. To help Passholders actually get into the races and volunteer slots they need, NYRR is adding what it calls a Passholder Race Selection Process. Anyone already working toward 9+1 for guaranteed entry to the 2027 marathon is not affected by the change.

Why NYRR Is Doing It

The move is a response to demand that has outstripped the number of race and volunteer spots NYRR can offer, a crush the organization ties directly to the marathon’s popularity and the success of 9+1 itself. “The hardest thing about completing 9+1 should be running the races, not getting into them,” NYRR CEO Rob Simmelkjaer said, pointing to a two-year audit and a series of pilots, including reserving bibs for runners who aren’t chasing marathon entry, that led to the overhaul. By limiting how many people are chasing 9+1 in a given year, NYRR argues, it can ease the registration scramble across its roughly 40 other adult races.

The organization is also carving out protections within the new system. It will reserve an allotment of complimentary 9+1 Passes for its Race Free program, which covers entries for runners who qualify financially, and a set of paid passes for runners approaching Streaker and 15-plus-finisher status.

The Trade-off for Runners

The tension is hard to miss. The whole appeal of 9+1 was that it rewarded work rather than chance, a reliable back door for locals shut out of a drawing that took only about 1% of a record 240,000-plus applications for the 2026 race. Putting a lottery in front of that back door means even the effort-based path is no longer guaranteed to be available in any given year. It also fits a wider trend across big-city racing, from Boston moving qualifiers who miss the cutoff into a random draw to the growing debate over whether marathon lotteries are fair at all.

NYRR’s counterargument is that the runners who do get in will have a smoother experience, with a clearer path to the specific races and volunteer shifts 9+1 requires, rather than fighting for sold-out registrations all year. Whether that trade lands with members is something the organization will hear about directly at a live town hall on its Set the Pace podcast, held the same evening as the announcement.

Also Changing: Member Plus Is Gone

Alongside the 9+1 overhaul, NYRR is eliminating its Member Plus tier. Going forward, all members will get advance registration for most non-drawing races, two days ahead of the general public, starting with the registration launch for January through March 2027 races on October 14, 2026. Existing Individual Plus and Family Plus members will move to the standard tier automatically on August 19 and receive a prorated refund for the difference.

None of this closes the other doors into the marathon. Runners can still get in through time qualification, completing 15 or more NYC Marathons, the charity partner program, Team for Kids, Team for Climate, and the general drawing, among other routes. NYRR, which was founded in 1958 and now counts close to 100,000 members, says 9+1 has sent more than 200,000 local runners to the start line since the early 2000s, in a year when the race is also marking the 50th anniversary of its five-borough course.