Aughhhh! I can’t believe it myself but this is a post about running! Not about clothing that you can but for cheap or a product review, but an actual post about running.
Have I gone for a run lately? Other than sprinting a quarter mile with my dog last week…no. Do I plan to soon? I really hope so! I don’t want to jinx it though, so I won’t elaborate, since I’ve set a time and place to go running and posted on here exactly what day and when I plan on getting started and then, BOOM! My knee starts bothering me again…
…So to celebrate my love of running and my hope to start running again soon, I thought I’d take my socks off and we could all get re-acquainted.
WARNING: This post is not for the faint of heart! Read on at your own risk…
Because I’ve decided to share with you all a picture of my first black toenail…
I know, it’s gross, and I’m sorry I posted it, but I had to shoe it off (that was actually a typo, but I left it because it worked so well). I did warn you, though!
I’ve had this thing for a while and have been trying to decide whether I should do a post on it or not. I definitely wanted to discuss this but didn’t want to gross everyone out! But we’re all runners here (well, most of us!), so I thought I would go ahead and share.
One of the reasons why I’m posting this is because I’ve had this black toenail for a WHILE. It got really black probably back in December, after I had started running really seriously again for a month. The entire time I was running, it was black, and I expected it to fall off. I waited for it to fall off. But it never did.
For some reason, I always kind of had this motto that I wasn’t a real runner until I lost a toenail. Well, I did actually lose a baby toenail from running once, but it never turned black. So I just didn’t let that count. And now the opposite has happened.
I wondered for a while if it was bruised or something else (like a fungus). Yes, I am getting really intimate with you guys, now! But I decided it was a bruise because it felt like a bruise. Then, after I stopped running, the bruise had kind of gone away, but not completely. Today, I really started to examine it, and I noticed my toenail has gotten really thick over the bruised area from healing (and I guess growing) around it.
So why am I sharing this with you? Because – you guessed it! I want to hear all your gross, grizzly toenail stories! If you want, you can email me photos at twentysix2x2@gmail.com and maybe I’ll post a collage! Just kidding…sort of…
So go on, do tell: have you ever gotten a bruised toenail from running? Ever lost one? Please comment below and share your story…
26.2 x 2 
I have a black one currently (second from the left on my right foot) that I figured would have fallen off a long time ago. It is the same nail that actually DID fall off years ago when I was a runner for the first time, but didn’t know anything about running. I think my shoes caused it this time around, and it didn’t hurt as much after my most half marathon after wearing my new Mizunos, so that is good news. On a side note, my left big toenail has been black since my wedding in June, after getting super bruised by people stepping on my feet while we were dancing in a moving trolley… It’s almost grown out now though! And my right thumbnail is all black from slamming it in a door recently. So many bruised nails!
Have you been to the doctor about your knee yet?
Ugh, unfortunately I haven’t been to the doctor. I just called the other day to make my physical appointment (I usually try to cover any and all problems I have in that one appointment since it’s free, lol), and I couldn’t get one until September. If I have a problem they always ask me if I want to see the physicians assistant and I’m like NO! I wanna see my real doctor! Grr. I love my doctor though, so I don’t mind waiting to see her. Haha that’s a bigger answer than you probably bargained for!
September? Wow, you’re patient! I’ve had this back pain for weeks; I lost my patience because it’s not improving and when I called a clinic with a spine specialist and they couldn’t see me for 10 days, I was like ‘umm, no’ and called another place which could see me in 1 day. I don’t have time to sit around any longer, I’ve been doing that and it isn’t working!
In toenail stories… I got a bruise nail (big toe too) at my half marathon back in November (5 months ago) and it looks about that same still – sorta brownish. It hurt like a bruise at first too but now it’s just discolored. I’ve given up on caring, it just means I really need a pedicure for summer 🙂
If I start running again and my leg bothers me, then I’ll definitely make a doctor’s appointment, but I’m 99% sure it’s Runner’s Knee, and I usually just need to take some time off (I’ve had it before) and then am able to start running again. This time, I plan on incorporating some weight lifting and stretches specifically geared for runners knee into my routine, though, so I can prevent this from happening in the future.
Dang not till September! Well hopefully it will feel better by then!
I lost both big toe nails a couple of years ago – due to poorly fitting ski boots and not running. But it took about 6 months from the first bruising to the toe nails actually coming off. And when they did it was pretty painful. When my nails grew back they looked a little like yours – kinda thicker, rougher and a little yellower. Not pretty!
I got stepped on in a soccer game two years ago and lost half of my big toenail (and let’s not even talk about my gross pinkie toenails that just come off whenever they feel like it…) and it has never been the same! One half of it always comes off whenever I try to trim it to look better! I give up. Haha. Foot modeling is not in our futures. 😀
LOL this is great! I feel like none of us should be allowed to call ourselves running bloggers unless we post an unphotoshpped picture of our toes!!! My toes are DISGUSTING!!! If my toenails get too long, they start to hurt when I run. So I purposefully cut them SUPER small. I barely even have piggy toenails anymore. From cutting them so low for so long, you can just keep going lower and lower and lower… toenails are overrated. Look, I will make you a deal, if you get at least ONE other person who sends you a foot pic, I will send you one of mine. ps. I did two shots of scotch and then typed this comment hehehehehe
Buahahahaha you’re on! Let the games begin! I love how I was so worried about people saying that my feet were GROSS and WHY would I post something like this, and instead I get a crapload of comments lol.
OK, Meg, someone else has submitted a toenail photo! By the way I am thinking about starting my first “Inaugural Ugly Foot Contest” or something similar to that, inspired by this post. I’m looking for a sponsor for the contest at the moment. As soon as I find one, I’ll be posting the official rules. We can count your pic as an entry, if you’d like. Same goes for the other “entry,” if she so desire to participate in the contest. 🙂
Yes! Okay I think I will wait until after I run Boston and take a picture RIGHT when I take off my shoe! If this is a contest, I need to brig out the big guns!
Your poor toe! Yes I’ve totally been there and I think as runners, nothing related to feet is off the table.
Am I even a real runner?!?! I have NEVER had a bruised toenail OR lost a toenail! And every time I see or hear about other runners having these problems, I’m like, “Man, I suck at running. What am I doing wrong??” If/when I get one though, I’ll be sure to submit a pic! 😉 I DO find that I need to keep my toenails really short or they get sore after running….
Oh, I totally didn’t mean that if you don’t lose a toenail, you’re not a real runner! I just meant that applied to myself. As a horseback rider, they say you’re not a true equestrian until you fall off a horse seven times. Well, I always hated that motto, because I’ve only fallen off of a horse about four times (but who’s counting?). And now I’m applying the same theory to myself with my toenails, lol. So I hope you didn’t take offense to this because it’s something that I really only use to bash myself as a runner, haha. I don’t know what it’s going to take for me to feel like I can call myself a “real runner.”
Oh gosh girl, I was NOT offended AT ALL!!! Since reading running blogs (since I started my own blog last July), I’ve read so much about runners getting bad toes and toenails, so I’ve asked myself that same question a number of times! LOL And then you brought it up too saying the same thing, so it was just funny to me that you thought the same way. 🙂 Is it sad that I hope when I do my full marathon in October, that I lose a toenail so I CAN call myself a real runner?! LOL
Haha I’m glad that I’m not alone! Us runners are so strange to want to inflict that kind of pain upon ourselves!
It is like a horrible right of passage. I once had one turn purple and fall off. However, luckily since I have switched to Mizuno I have kept all my toenails intact.