For marathon runners, it’s not unusual to find an energy bar in the pre-race goodie bag, so at China’s Qingyuan Marathon last Sunday, thousands of runners took a bite of what appeared to be an energy bar in the pre-race kit. Except, it wasn’t an energy bar.
It was actually, soap. Very thoughtful of race organisers to think of runner hygiene, but the course was reportedly littered with soaps that had a bite or two missing.
From the photographs shared via social media, the labels on the soap packaging were in english - so perhaps this was lost in translation. After all, some soap looks, and smells, good enough to eat!
Over 12,000 seek medical help in S #China’s marathon, some mistook soap in gift pack as food https://t.co/RWCzq4jsuH pic.twitter.com/dcr3c38Rnm
— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) March 24, 2016
The race featured 20,000 participants, and medical staff performed first aid more than 12,000 times on the day - with the Wall Street Journal reporting 10,000 cases of muscle spasms and 1,700 sprains.
So, next time you’re shuffling through your race goodie bag, make sure you know what you’re putting in your mouth.
