As an elite joggler — that is, someone who runs while juggling — Michal Kapral of Canada is used to doing things the hard way. But at this year’s New York City Marathon, that meant something different: settling for an ordinary 26.2 miles, empty-handed. Marathon organizers banned joggling from the course, ruling that beanbags filled with millet seed, like Kapral’s, count as “Prohibited Items.”

Kapral, a 43-year-old editor at a health care group in Toronto, had hoped this year to improve on his world-record joggling time of 2 hours 50 minutes 12 seconds — an impressive feat even for serious runners who do not bother juggling on the course. Kapral’s best marathon time is 2:30:40, and he once won a marathon outright while joggling. On Sunday morning, he was still grappling with leaving his beanbags behind.

“I understand there have to be security rules, but this seems like it’s crossed a line where it gets to be intrusive, and maybe less about real security than about rules that end up stopping us from having fun,” Kapral said. “But what I’m really disappointed about is the kids. They love to watch me joggle.”

The joggler’s beanbags join an esoteric list of other contraband forbidden from the racecourse: no sleeping bags, no pets, no mace and certainly no drones. Knitting needles are also forbidden, so David Babcock, who has the world record for the longest scarf knit during a marathon (12 feet), resorted to crocheting flowers out of yarn with his fingers. No one, it appeared, had contested the ban on selfie sticks.