Lung distance: Chain-smoking grandpa runs marathon in 3.5 hours
He puff, puff, passed the other marathoners in this smoking run.
A Chinese grandpa redefined smoking the competition after running an entire marathon in just 3.5 hours while puffing away on cigarettes. Images of the chain-smoking athlete are lighting up Weibo — the Chinese social media platform — as fans praise his respiratory fortitude.
The 50-year-old runner, known as Uncle Chen, accomplished the breath-taking feat at the Xin’anjiang Marathon in Jiande, running the entire 26.2 miles while either smoking or lighting up a cig, the Mirror reported.
Smoking might seem like it would be at odds with long-distance running. However, the tobacco-loving grandpa reportedly managed to complete the event in an impressive 3 hours, 28 minutes and 45 seconds — a “good” marathon time, according to the Marathon Handbook. As a result, Uncle Chen placed 574th out of around 1,500 runners, as seen in a certificate posted on Weibo.
Meanwhile, images show the marathon runner sprinting along with a cigarette dangling from his mouth like a health-conscious Edward R. Murrow.
Needless to say, social media fans were impressed that he managed to finish the race while smoking — and without running out of cigarettes. However, others accused him of harming other competitors with secondhand smoke, TMZ reported.
This isn’t Uncle Chen’s first rodeo. In 2018, the ciggy-loving marathon man finished the Guangzhou marathon in 3 hours and 36 minutes.
He also completed the 2019 Xiamen marathon in 3 hours and 32 minutes, proving that not only is smoking not hindering his performance, but it may actually be improving it.
