Why runners should cut their toenails

If ever there was a reason why us runners need to trim our toenails, this is it.  These are my feet with black toenails and something I am not proud of at all.  This dates back to early May when I ran the MK Marathon and in my pre-race countdown preparation I didn't manage trim my toenails as normal. The net result of running 26.2 miles with untrimmed toenails is exactly as above.

My apologies for the gory details, I am about to lose my left big toenail as a new nail has grown up underneath and about to push the old one off.  My right toenail is doing fine and not being "replaced" even though it looks quite horrible.  With the toenail about to get pushed off, as far as I can tell the new one is about half way up, so I guess the flesh underneath maybe a little tender.  I will have to wait and see but I hope this doesn't inhibit any running in the near future.

The amazing thing about this is that I didn't feel a thing as I was running; it wasn't until after I got home and took my shoes and socks off I saw the damage.

I regret this terribly, an avoidable position to be in.  Does it count as an injury?  Not really.  Will I repeat this another time?  No way.

Not like I had dropped a breeze block or anything....

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