Calamia says:
“Following my win in NYC, I had not heard from NYRR (New York Road Runners), so I reached out. They informed me that I was not eligible for prize money, having not raced six NYRR races in 2023.”
“There was no stipulation around having to run six races within a year to be eligible when I registered...Apparently, the policy was updated on May 12, 2023, months after I registered for the race.”
NYRR website says:
ELIGIBILITY
Updated May 12, 2023
To be eligible for NYRR member prize money:
participants must have an active NYRR membership for six months prior to race day for the TCS New York City Marathon and three months prior to race day for all other NYRR races;
any change in a participant’s NYRR gender profile must have occurred at least three months prior to race day;
the participant’s gender profile at the time of race registration must match the participant’s gender profile on race day;
after the participant initially registered for the race, the participant must not have requested a change to their gender identity on their race registration and must not have changed their NYRR gender profile prior to race day; and
all participants must comply with all NYRR race policies, including but not limited to the Code of Conduct and the Rules of Competition.
All athletes must comply with NYRR’s Run Clean Policy.
The stipulation about needing to run in 6 NYRR events in 2023 overall to be eligible for 2023 NY Marathon prize money doesn't sound right. All the prize winners in the regular Men's and Women's categories were all foreign nationals, and that's the case most years.
Restricting prize money to runners who've raced in 5 other NYRR events in addition to the Marathon would unfairly favor local/regional residents over everyone else - and that would run counter to the international nature and sporting spirit of the event.
It doesn't make any sense that NYRR would go to all the trouble of creating a new non-binary category for the Marathon, and allocate prize money for the NB top finishers, then turn around and treat the NB winners in such an obviously unfairly discriminatory way.