Justine Huang, 26, ran the New York City Marathon drunk — and she has no regrets.
Huang said she likes to push herself, but drinking to the point of being unable to break any records reminded her that running can be fun — especially when roughly seven alcoholic drinks are involved.
“As a competitive person, I have the mindset that I want to run as fast as I can,” Huang said. “But forcing myself to slow down this time — spending time with spectators and friends who came out to support me — made this experience so much better than I thought.”
Huang didn’t think she’d get the opportunity to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon and the TCS New York City Marathon three weeks apart, since both are hard to get into.
The New York City Marathon’s lottery has an acceptance rate of 4% — the same as Stanford University . Huang was able to bypass the lottery and snag one of the 14,000 slots allocated to charities who give bibs to runners who fundraise for them.
But, she relied on the lottery for the Chicago Marathon — where over 120,000 runners applied for around 50,000 spots, according to the Chicago Sun-Times . Once she learned she had received a slot, she decided to run for speed there, and run for vibes in New York City.