I don't know about race for the taste but I was just at the Minnie Marathon and I believe they said the same thing but DD and I both used ours as well as most other people I saw. Hope that helps a bit.
Again, I don't know about Race for the Taste, but in the half and marathon they used to say they were prohibited but now they say discouraged possibly because everyone just ignored iit. I wear mine on the long outside stretches but turn it off in the parks when there's a bit more going on that I might need to be aware of safetywise.