Obviously, athletes enjoy running marathons and triathlons, as they keep going back to them. However, there are some aspects of this chosen sports that they really hate! For example, during a triathlon, when an athlete has finally finished the swim and bike legs of the race and is 3 miles into the run portion of the event. Suddenly it starts…the beginning of the dreaded inner thigh chafe. The early chafe starts as just an itch, maybe a tingly feeling right in the area where your shorts rub your thigh (or for most of us, where your thighs rub together when you take a step). 10 miles later, you cross the finish line with a huge raw area that hurts for days after the event. And the worst part is, you can’t even show off your battle scars, because really, who are you going to show that to? Besides chafing, there are three more aspects that most athletes hate about marathons and triathlons.
Chafing
As you can see above, chafing can be a major problem during a triathlon, or any endurance event. It’s inevitable that with any repetitive motion, clothing or body parts are eventually going to get uncomfortable – it’s friction, right? Some of the worst spots for chafing are inner thigh, armpit area, and around the sports bra for women, or the dreaded nipple chafing for men, but this problem can potentially occur anywhere. Luckily, pjuractive 2SKIN can be applied before the competition or training to help decrease your chafing problem. It is the innovation for protection against chafing and blisters.
Race fuel
Another common issue in any endurance event, including the triathlon, is the problem of what to eat during your race. In events lasting longer than 45 minutes, most people have to eat something to be able to keep going and avoid the dreaded “bonk” – we’ll touch on that more later. But another thing that nearly every brand of race fuel type supplements has in common is that they taste awful! Whether its gels, beans or gummies, all of the race fuels sport that sickeningly sweet yet salty taste that, by the end of the triathlon, is the last thing you want to stomach. Luckily, most events make up for it by having awesome post triathlon food and drinks.
Runner’s feet
Similar to the painful problem of chafing caused by triathlon clothes, triathlon shoes and the overall sport of triathlon racing can do a number on your feet. Commonly referred to as “runner’s feet”, this problem can happen to all endurance sport athletes. Runner’s Feet is actually a combination of maladies affecting the feet, including blisters, calluses and bruised toenails. Training for a triathlon can make even the most feminine triathlon runner’s feet something out of a pedicurist’s worst nightmare. Although there are padded shoes, blister protection and running socks that can help minimize the effect, no runner is untouched from this dreaded problem.
“The Bonk”
Finally, at number 4, “the bonk” is by far the worst problem about running a triathlon or any other endurance event that most people hate. What is “the bonk”? Most people who have trained well for a triathlon or marathon start the event feeling like they could go on forever. At some point during the triathlon or other event, you start to feel a little tired, that’s normal, that’s not “the bonk”. However, for many, despite the amount of training done, there comes a point where you feel like you just cannot go on. Also called “hitting the wall”, the bonk is the point of total physical and mental exhaustion when you would give anything to be able to stop racing and just be done. Some people claim to never get this feeling because of how well they train or what they use to fuel during the race, and they are probably telling the truth, but for most people, “the bonk” is far too real of a problem.
So based on this list, you would think that someone would have to be crazy to want to participate in a triathlon or other endurance event, and you would probably be right. Why would we want to do something we hate? However, when you put in the months of effort to get in shape, show up at your triathlon and finally cross that finish line, you will feel a sense of accomplishment that will erase all of those bad memories of chafing, blisters and bonk, and leave you asking “What triathlon are we signing up for next?”. Welcome to the club!