‘Fastest Marathon while Chain-smoking’

The Chinese runner nicknamed Uncle Chen is the news after he recently ran a marathon in three-and-a-half hours while chain-smoking a pack of cigarettes.  While the reports covering the news had a fairly similar take on the oddness of it all, Canadian Running added this observation to its coverage:

Although Chen was not shooting for a Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon while chain-smoking, there isn’t any previous record in place.