"I've got chafage!"

Just a WEIRD story

Tokyo marathon runner solves mystery of sore nipples

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.