Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No! It’s a dude in China, chain-smoking cigarettes while running the Xin’anjiang Marathon in Jiande in early November.
This chain-smoking runner goes by the name “Uncle Chen,” and ran the Xin’anjiang Marathon on Nov. 6 in three hours and 28 minutes, according to Running Magazine. Uncle Chen, 50, chain-smoked throughout the entire marathon, and ranked 574th out of nearly 1,500 runners that day, incredibly.
This is far from the first time Uncle Chen has run while smoking, Running Magazine noted. He apparently chain-smoked throughout the 2018 Guangzhou Marathon, and another in Xiamen in 2018. On both occasions, he ran for roughly three hours and thirty minutes.
50-year-old ‘Uncle Chen’ completed the 42-km marathon in just three hours and 28 minutes to get the 574th spot!
And this is not his first time! He in an ultra-marathon runner with years of experience in running 50km marathons.#marathon #viral #unclechen pic.twitter.com/f3IOGf8UDd
— ETimes Lifestyle (@ETimesLifestyle) November 15, 2022
Uncle Chen went viral on Chinese social media site Weibo for his antics, with rumors starting to spread that suggest he only chain-smokes while he’s competing. He’s also an ultra-marathon runner, according to Running Magazine, and covered distances of some 50 kilometers and has run for 12 hours in the past. (RELATED: ‘Kind Of Brutal’: Marathon Runner Claims He Was Attacked By Coyote)
Apparently some Chinese social media users were annoyed at Uncle Chen for his behavior, saying that people shouldn’t be allowed to smoke during the marathon, Running Magazine reported.
“Whoever is next to him is unlucky,” wrote one user on Weibo. Honestly though, wouldn’t his smoking just push the other runners to run faster to get away from him?