Bloody Nipples is not Cockney slang:

A while back, long before I even thought about running the NYC Marathon, I was in a new running store, Jack Rabbit looking at shoes. The neat thing about this place is they video tape you running and tell you about your running style and what type of shoe would be good best for your foot.

So, I go through this whole production. The woman was super nice and patient with me. She let me try on a bunch of shoes, most of them in the $80-$130 range. As I was sitting there trying on different shoes, right at my eye level was a package of these things:

I got a good laugh at these things. Ha! Ha! Then the woman helping me asked me what was so funny. I told her and she said, "you'd be surprised how many men end up with bloody or irritated nipples." Yeah right I thought.

Flash forward a few months. Here I am in my second week of training for the NYC Marathon and I come to realize a couple of very important things: Cotton shirts are not the best shirts to run in and this is probably the most important thing I learned: NIPPLE IRRITATION IS REAL!!!

I'll talk about the cotton fabrics and my conversion to the "dri-fit" athletic wear in another blog, but now let me talk about Nipple Irritation. It hurts like hell! If my chosen profession did not require me to wear a shirt I wouldn't but, alas Chippendales is not busting down my door.

Now, I remembered the Nipple Guards, but I really thought these were for women (they're not just for women by the way). And I wasn't about to tell the Brooklyn coaches, both women, that my nipples hurt, because I'd die of embarrassment. Fortunately Coach Vanessa let us all in on the joys and wonders of BODY GLIDE. She told us it was good for chafing, blisters on the feet, and for men it's good to put on your nipples.

I didn't waste anytime after that practice, I bought some right away. I'm much more comfortable now. I highly recommend this product.

Run in good health.


JP