Imagine you’ve just finished running 26.2 miles. You bite into the energy bar in your gift pack, only to discover it’s a bar of soap.

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What would be the worst thing to eat just minutes after running a marathon? Buffalo wings? Hot soup? What about a bar of soap?

At the Qingyuan marathon in southern China last weekend, many of the runners opened their gift packages and found what they thought was an energy bar. It was actually a bar of grape-scented soap. According to the People’s Daily newspaper, the streets were littered with bars of soap missing a bite.

The English packaging reportedly confused the runners. Come on, wouldn’t you eat this if you couldn’t read the label?

Courtesy of People's Daily

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Eh, maybe not after you open the package and see how frighteningly purple it is.

Courtesy of People's Daily

More than 12,000 of the 20,000 runners sought some form of medical attention and 17 were hospitalized. Not because of the soap, though.

- Dan Gartland

[via BBC]