Houston Lawyer Andrea Sager Went Viral for a Dating-Ad Shirt at the NYC Marathon: Her 5:54 Finish Was Removed After She Took a Hit of Marijuana on the Course
Houston lawyer Andrea Sager went viral running the New York City Marathon in a pink shirt carrying her own dating ad. Her finish has now been removed. According to the New York Post on November 13 and Marathon Handbook on November 14, New York Road Runners removed her from the results on Tuesday because she accepted a hit of marijuana from a stranger on the course, in violation of a Code of Conduct that explicitly bans smoking. Sager, 35, was running her first marathon. She confirmed the disqualification on Instagram and gave her finish time as 5:54.
The shirt is what made her famous. The front of the pink top she wore on November 1 read “Andrea, 35, Single. Great Credit. Bad Judgment,” and the back read “Looking for a man with more endurance than my ex.” According to the Post, dozens of men approached her during the race and hundreds more have since poured into her direct messages. She told TODAY that messages from men had been arriving ever since, and that she was starting a video series about dating away from the apps. Sager is divorced with two children, works as a lawyer in Houston and runs a legal technology company alongside her law practice.
The hit on the course was caught on camera. A short clip posted to YouTube by the Brooklyn account nochillnala shows Sager stopping to take the hit, with her bib and pink shirt in full view. She told the Post: “I wasn’t planning on smoking weed on the course, but I was in so much pain and needed something to help me finish.”
Smoking gets its own section in the NYRR Code of Conduct. It bans smoking, vaping and the use of tobacco or marijuana products in the start corrals, on the course and in the finish area, and stretches that ban to anywhere within 1,000 feet of them. The listed penalties start at disqualification and loss of award eligibility and go as far as a suspension or bar from future NYRR events and the loss of membership. The race rule is far tighter than the city's law: since New York legalized cannabis in 2021, adults 21 and over may smoke it in most places where tobacco smoking is allowed, though parks are an exception, and the marathon finishes in Central Park.
Sager pushed back at first, arguing that a 5:54 marathoner was hardly competing for anything and that she had raised thousands of dollars for charity to get her place. The decision stood, but she kept her finisher medal. She said: “I mean, I get it. It’s annoying, but they didn’t ask for the medal back and I’m getting a lot of coverage, I’m talking with the brands now, so there’s a lot of upside, but still annoying.” She also said she would not change a thing if she could do it over, and that she is considering wearing the viral shirt again at a Houston race in the coming weeks.
After the disqualification, Sager rewrote her shirt's slogan for her Instagram caption: “35. Single. Great credit. Poor judgment. Disqualified.” She also joked: “Damn, I can’t send my 5:54 to Boston now.” Nothing reported so far suggests she faces more than the lost result. This year's New York City Marathon drew a record 61,146 finishers, and Sager's name is no longer on that list.
Source: New York Post
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 资料图：2025年纽约市马拉松布鲁克林Sunset Park路段的跑者（Wil540 art摄，CC BY 4.0，经Wikimedia Commons），已裁为16:9，非Sager本人、非涉事片段画面。/ File photo: Runners in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, during the 2025 New York City Marathon (photo by Wil540 art, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 16:9; not Sager and not an image from the clip in question.
