Where Chris Runs: Fear and Chafing

Warning, this blog contains subject matter that may be considered mature in nature. Seriously, a warning.....if you keep reading, you can’t TMI or WTF me later......stop now.

Ok.

I have long contended that Runners World was not intended for runners that actually run a lot. Because if it was written for runners that run a lot of miles, every other article would be about chafing or diarrhea or urine color or frostbite on seemingly valuable appendages. There’s an old runners quote, “Run long enough and something is bound to happen”. This is true, and that something frequently involves losing skin from someplace painful.

I use Body Glide to prevent chafing. Like many things running related, there may be better products available, I experimented until I found something that worked, then I stopped trying other things. I need it more in the winter when my skin is either cold and/or wet, and usually use it on runs 20 miles or longer regardless of the weather. It used to go on (from top to bottom), the inside of my arms, my nipples, the small of my back at my shorts line, pretty much everywhere inside my shorts/between my legs and all over my feet. At my current weight, 148 thanks for asking, I don’t need it on my arms and small of my back.

I ran out of Body Glide a week or so ago. It’s not a big emergency in the Summer, I run without a shirt most of the time, and I needed to go to Portland to get more shoes and figured I’d get more Glide when I was there. Then, the trip to Portland kept getting delayed, and before I knew it it was Saturday Night and I was getting ready for a 30+ mile run in the middle of the night and knew that I needed Glide. I get these little sample bottles of different anti chafing stuff in race bags all the time and usually just throw them in a box full of stuff I don’t know why I save. I retrieved one and applied it everywhere Glide goes.

I am here to report that not all anti chafing lubricants are created equal. It was cold and pretty windy in the Basket Slough Saturday night. It’s 3 miles from one entrance to the other, so I was basically running the same three miles back and forth, into the wind one way, with the wind the other. By my third trip into the wind, my nipples were rubbed raw. As I came up to the car at the Hwy 22 entrance I asked Jeanne to grab me a new shirt, thinking that might help, it didn’t. For a while I was running with one hand in my shirt to hold it away from my chest, then decided to tie the shirt around my waist and be cold. At some point I glanced at my watch, which I wear on the underside of my wrist (in running mode) and noticed red spots all over the palm of my hand. It took a minute for me to realize what it was from but when I turned the beam of my head lamp onto my chest I looked like a nursing mother for a vampire baby!

I arrived at the Hwy 99 side and found Lynn waiting with Jeanne and taking pictures. He also offered band aid advice, which turned out to be a great suggestion and meant I got a picture with P n J sammich in my mouth and bandaids on my tits! They did work. I was able to wear a shirt over them and had no further issues......well, until the hot water of the shower hit them at 3:00 AM!