Black Toenail

This might be a gross topic to some of you but it is important to me so I am going to blog about it. If you are squeamish or HATE feet like my friend Michael does, you might want to NOT read this post. If you can handle it, read on.

I have a black toenail. It isn’t the first and hopefully won’t be the last. Here it is for all to see:

Dirty...I know!

The first black toenail I got was after my 10k in November. I had my toenails painted red and that same one looked like a darker color. I didn’t think too much about it until I noticed that the toenail seemed thicker than the others. I decided to take the nail polish off and investigate. Sure enough, it was thicker and darker in color.

Hmmmm…let’s just see how much I can clip it with the toenail clippers. I kept clipping and clipping and clipped the whole top of the nail off (I have recently read up on the topic and we are NOT supposed to do this so don’t if you are having this issue). There was a nail already growing underneath and it didn’t hurt at all to clip it all off!

I did a little research online, found out this was normal for runner, and thanked God it was winter and I could wear socks and shoes while it grew back.

It had just grown back for my half-marathon and I had a growing suspicion it might not last long! Sure enough, after my half marathon, the nail was VERY tender. Then, two days later…BLACK.

Well darn!  Here we go again…

I thought maybe it was because my shoes were too small…NOPE!

I thought maybe it was from running downhill…that certainly wasn’t the case for this half marathon…it was so hilly!

I did a little MORE research and found this very insightful article. Apparently, this is VERY common among runners who run long distances. It is just another example of how I really am a runner!

I guess I will just have to go and get a pedicure to cover it up with some dark nail polish…oh darn!

There...that's better!

Have you ever had a black toenail from running? If you have, consider yourself a “real” runner. If you already consider yourself a “real” runner and you haven’t had one, consider yourself “real” lucky!

Me…A Runner?!?First Half Marathon – Registered

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