I Bled From Chafing While Marathon Training—This Anti-Chafe Stick Worked Magic

When I first decided to run the New York City Marathon, I had no idea what I was in for. I knew that training would entail long, grueling runs and working out most days in between, but I didn’t expect a lot of the challenges that come with it. I’m talking shin splints, trialing a million handheld water bottles, and tons of exhaustion. One thing I really wasn’t expecting? The chafing. 

I’ve been a runner for a few years now, and I’ve run my fair share of half-marathons. Up until I started training for the full marathon, however, I’d never run more than a half-marathon, so I wasn’t sure how my body would react to longer distances. I’d never experienced much chafing on my runs, but once my milage started going up, I started chafing everywhere. I was getting chafed under my bra line, where my arms rubbed against my shirt, on my collarbones, and more. As the distances got longer, the chafing got worse—to the point where I would bleed. (I’ll save you the photographic evidence, but it was gnarly.)

As you can imagine, I tried everything to stop the chafing. I tried two of the leading anti-chafe sticks, and while they helped a bit, I still had angry welts after every run. In desperation, I was slathering myself in Vaseline—a bit more helpful, but it was staining my running clothes. I was ready to give up and accept that I would probably just have scars on my body from this training time, but then I remembered that one of my favorite sensitive-skin brands, First Aid Beauty, had an anti-chafe stick.