A marathon runner who decided he wanted to run on 'hard mode' and continuously smoked through a race has ended up being disqualified.
Being able to run a marathon at just about any age is a commendable challenge.
Doing it in a costume, or braving it during adverse weather conditions, even more so.
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But what about smoking during the race? And not just one cigarette, but chain-smoking over the entire marathon.
Well, one runner took it upon himself to do this while completing in the Xiamen Marathon in China earlier this month.
In fact, he has built up a reputation for himself and become known as ‘Uncle Chen’ locally.
On top of this, Chen likely wasn’t as young and spry as some of the other runners seeing as he was 52 years old when he did it. And just to top it all off, he finished the race with an impressive time of just three hours and 33 minutes.
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Unfortunately for him, he had violated the race's rules against smoking on the course and was disqualified.
Pictures of Chen quickly went viral on Chinese social media platform Weibo and many remarked that this wasn't the first time he's done this.
In previous years, Chen had also run entire marathons chain smoking the whole way.
The Chinese Athletics Association implemented the regulation last year as well as a few other rules that prohibited certain behavior.
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As well as smoking, runners are also warned against open defecation and trampling on flower beds or green spaces.
Chen shot to international stardom two years ago when he was spotted running the Xin'anjiang Marathon with a cigarette in his mouth. He ran the 26.2 mile race in just 3hrs 28mins and placed 574th out of more than 1,500 competitors.
On social media, fans have continued to praise Chen despite his latest disqualification.
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“Dude decided to play on hard mode, and they disqualify him?,” joked one Reddit user who reacted to the story.
“IKR? this guy deserves an extra award for being able to do that,” replied another.
“I couldn’t run a marathon, with or without a cigarette. So, regardless of what the regulations say, I say Uncle Chen DID THAT,” another user praised.
Despite the praise he had received, some people did remark that regardless of Chen’s iron lungs and their ability to deal with the smoke while running, his competitors may struggle.
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“I’m a smoker, and I would still find it very obnoxious to have somebody else smoking in front of me while I’m trying to max-perform my lungs to run. What a nut,” a Reddit user added.
UNILAD has contacted the Xiamen Marathon organizers for comment.
Topics: News, World News, China