Road Runners rule leaves disabled runners behind ahead of Brooklyn Half

Disabled runners looking forward to running in this weekend’s iconic Brooklyn Half say the fast-and-loose organizers are leaving them in the dust before they could even pick up their racers’ bibs.

Road Runners implemented a new rule that requires blind, paralyzed and other special needs athletes to plead their case to be granted a “critical” second guide for the annual race, The Post has learned.

“Why ever do you need these people with blatant disabilities to now appeal for more than one guide? It’s absolutely discouraging,” said Sonya Choudhury, who has been volunteering as an Achilles International guide for 12 years.

Road Runners unleashed chaos in March when it announced that it would no longer allow any disabled runners to have two guides — a blanket rule it reversed nine days later after advocates following severe backlash.

The group told The Post the email was a flub, and that the real new rules would require disabled athletes to apply for, and possibly be denied, their second guide.

“New York Road Runners’ goal is to minimize barriers and ensure that as many participants, regardless of their ability, can experience our events. We recognize that new processes can be challenging, change often is,” a spokesperson told The Post in a statement.

“The law requires our interactive process and to provide individualized interactions with each participant asking for a reasonable accommodation. That means that each request is analyzed on a case-by-case basis — there is no one-size-fits-all solution. 

Only three of the 16 requests for a second guide at the Brooklyn Half were denied, Road Runners said, saying those racers’ disabilities only required one guide.

The group said it approved all 26 athletes who requested one guide, but at least one runner reported to Achilles that they were denied just two days before they were set to hit the pavement.

Michael Ring, a partially paralyzed athlete and disability advocate, said he initially denied a second guide for the Brooklyn Half — until he “implied [he] was threatening to sue them.”

“It was frustrating. It really appeared to me that they came up with a cookie-cutter policy without talking to people with disabilities,” said Ring, whose journey racing with acute motor axonal neuropathy — alongside his two guides — was highlighted in Road Runner’s 2025 documentary “Final Finishers.”

Ring, of Park Slope, described his two guides, one of whom is his son, as his “offensive line” and his “Secret Service agents” who keep other races from “jostling” Ring as they speed by.

“I need someone to protect me. If someone runs by and they tap me, I can go down. I can’t get up unless someone helps me. They might even interlock their arms so that no one’s going to run between them,” said Ring, who is calling on Road Runners to establish a standing committee of athletes who can represent a range of various disabilities.

“Without two guides, I would withdraw from the race.”

Susan P. counted herself as one of the lucky ones when she was approved for a second guide — just one week before race day and more than a month after she applied through the arduous process.

“It’s just stressful not knowing, and it’s not fair to my guides who have been training for a race they don’t know if they’re going to get to run. It just seems really unfair and confusing because New York Road Runners haven’t explained why they changed their policy,” said Susan, 60.

The Manhattanite — who is completely blind in one eye and has pinhole vision in the other — described the second guide as “critical” for all her races, but especially the Brooklyn Half.

One spends the 13.1 miles tethered and offering verbal clues for navigating the course, while the second communicates with other runners to clear the path.

The pair also look out for cheering family that Susan might otherwise miss, as well as read the funny signs that bystanders wave along the course.

“Having a second guide can do something that is making the emotional experience more equitable than it is necessarily keeping me safe. It’s why so many people are into running. The achievement feels so good!” said Susan, saying her guides give her the “experience that sighted runners can have.”

Road Runners told The Post it offers disabled runners additional help with completing the new application process and had not received any complaints, but Achilles International told The Post it had received reports “almost daily” of issues — which they would need to re-complete for every race they participate in.

“The path to the start line is already steeper for people with disabilities. The goal should be removing barriers, not adding more,” says Emily Glasser, the group’s president and CEO.

“Athletes with disabilities should not be left wondering whether they will have support or required to repeatedly justify the accommodations they need to participate safely and equitably on race day.”