Marathoner smokes field

Smoking might catch up to this 50-year-old marathon runner, but it hasn’t yet. The man known as ‘‘Uncle Chen’’ this month ran the Xin’anjiang Marathon in Jiande, China, in a more than respectable 3hr 28 minutes, Canadian Running reported. Photos of Chen smoking went viral on Chinese social media app Weibo last week. Chen finished 574th overall in 3:28:45 out of nearly 1500 runners. Some on Weibo complained that Chen was allowed to smoke during the race. ‘‘This type of behaviour should be banned from the race,’’ one said. ‘‘I feel bad for the runners around him,’’ said another.