Strange

Tokyo runner solves sore nipple dilemma

by cynthia yoo | February 19, 2008 at 02:07 pm

1747 views | 0 Recommendations | 5 comments

I thought the runner's "sore-nipple" problem was created for that "Office" storyline.
I was mistaken and my sympathies go out to all you runners.

But for millions of other marathon men and women, concerns are of an altogether more painful nature.

After his first assault at a marathon last year banker Brian Jones was shocked to discover the sharp pain in his chest was not cardiovascular, but bleeding nipples.

"When I took my shirt off at the end it was white -- apart from two particular parts of it," he told Reuters in an interview after completing his second Tokyo Marathon at the weekend.

"It looked like I had been shot by a sniper. This year I bought some Vaseline. It worked, although I had nasty chafing elsewhere."

Such dark thoughts are unlikely to have troubled Sunday's winner, Switzerland's Viktor Roethlin, who powered to victory in two hours, seven minutes and 23 seconds.

But for around 30,000 fun runners who took part in Tokyo, issues such as chafing can trigger deep despair.

"I struggled to find a comfortable pair of underwear this morning," said Jones, who clocked 4:37:46, beating his 2007 time by 11 minutes.

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moonwolf

at 17:54 on February 19th, 2008

My questions are; do women have a problem with this as they have much more, shall we say, prominent nipples, and if so would this method work for them? There was no mention of that in the orginal article.

Nicole Billard

at 18:28 on February 19th, 2008

While I was initially surprised by this question seemingly 'out of the blue', it actually makes sense that most guys would wonder. Most women who work out regularly deal with issues of motion by wearing 'jog bras' or 'work out tops' that are both supportive (to suppress motion) and add another layer of protection against shirts that move freely. Most avid male runners will wear a tight fitting tank-top for the same reason; t-shirts and loose fitting garments move too much.

Equality is found even in sports, Moonwolf. Comparative prominence aside, everyone's body moves in strange ways when in motion. This poor guy just found out the hard way what every runner or sports
nut has found out in some way or another:motion has it's downside.

falc72

at 02:33 on February 20th, 2008

When the mental strains take over, you may not feel where it bleeds...

falc72 has contributed a photo to this story.

slipperyp

at 13:20 on February 24th, 2008

Here's how I approach this now. I never have problems with chafing any more with this...

For nipples, I have small band-aids. The little "spot" kind that have circular adhesive with a small pad in the middle. If I'm going running for more than an hour and a half (or sometimes more than an hour) I always try to remember to put these on. I once ran a half marathon in 1:31 without them and paid for it with Office-style streaks by the end. Sometimes if I'm going for more than an hour I'll wear them, too, but it depends a little. It also definitely depends on the shirt - I only run in synthetics but even amongst these there's a wide range of how much they might chafe.

For any *other* areas, I use Body Glide. There are probably other products that do the same thing, but this has worked well for me for feet or shorts chafing.

And really for feet, I find the best approach is practice (finding out what shoes REALLY work best and tuning the size) and variation (rotating between shoes). Right now I alternate through three pair of running shoes - not everybody has the luxury of having this many sets of shoes to swap through (or has the interest in running enough where the idea of having all those shoes doesn't seem crazy) but it works great for me!