A post about chafing
This past weekend I finished the most challenging 50k I've done (34 mi, 11k elevation gain, super rugged) and I am happy / unhappy to say that the worst pain I felt during and after the race was crotch chafing. As in, am-I-bleeding-from-my-undercarriage-or-what kind of pain that made me want to duck-walk the last 4 miles. This despite a liberal application of Nut Butter, though I had no illusions I'd finish completely free from chafe.
It's clear that the worst of the damage is due to the edge of my "briefs"-length shorts liner sawing into my thighs, and it only really starts being a problem after probably 6-8 hours of activity. Has this issue been solved for you by simply buying shorts with longer liners? How often do you reapply Nut Butter? Will that even make a difference after a certain point? The chafe is certainly not restricted to just the sawn-on skin but the whole dang area. Do these crotch regions ever just...toughen up?? Or do we just become numb to this pain too.
I've got my first 100k coming up in November, and while heat/sweat won't be quite as much of a factor I truly do not want that race to feature a true shredding of my nether regions. Any advice would be welcome!