About one out of five runners carry a phone, up from about 1 in 10 in 2003, according to a recent online survey of 2,732 runners conducted by Runner’s World. Marathoning is growing and its culture changing because of first-timers and “back of the packers,” Willey said. Runners who take five, six or seven hours to finish “are more likely to carry a cellphone” to chat or snap pictures.

As a marathoner with a personal best of 3 hours 9 min 32 secs who chooses to slow down to socialize, Chris Solarz is an exception. In the more than 100 marathons he says he has run, Solarz, 28, has often carried a digital voice recorder (to get the names and numbers of people he meets) and a Canon PowerShot (to “tell the story of the journey,” he said).

Not everyone thinks technology is progress. Many runners use it sparingly in training and reject it for races. “When you start adding all this paraphernalia clipped to your waist, running up your shirt into your ears, it gets confusing,” said Deena Kastor, the US women’s marathon record-holder and a contender to win in New York this year. “It takes away from just getting out there and analyzing the run yourself rather than having a piece of equipment tell you what you’re feeling.”

Marathoners who compete for prize money are prohibited from using anything more hi-tech than a stopwatch during races.

—CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS / (New York Times)