Wu Xiangdong was the top Chinese runner at the Shanghai International Half Marathon on 21st Apr, 2019, finishing with a time of 1:06:16. He says that he would have done better had he not been forced to shit himself two-thirds of the way through.
Wu confessed that about 10 km into the race, his stomach started feeling extremely uncomfortable. By the time he was at the 14 km mark, he could no longer hold it in. 4 km later, he was feeling a bit better after having completely emptied his bowels into his running shorts.
The extra load didn’t slow Wu down the near finish line where he sprinted ahead of an African competitor, finishing less than four minutes behind the half-marathon winner, Antenayehu Dagnachew Yisma of Ethiopia, before hurrying over to the toilet.
Wu said that he didn’t know what had caused his diarrhea, noting that he just had one piece of bread and drank a bottle of water before the race. While he may have been the fastest Chinese runner, Wu described the half-marathon as one he hoped to forget. “I can’t stand the smell.”
