Little things you don't think of...

          When I first met Desi and she found out I was an ultra marathoner, she asked me if I've ever lost toe nails from doing it. Well, here's my documented case of losing a couple nails after my latest 50 mile run. I've heard of hard core ultra runners actually having these nails removed completely, and now I understand why. My barefoot running friends are probably laughing at me. However, the race that caused this would have been excessively difficult to run BF due to terrain. I'm all for BF running on roads, but this would have been a very very difficult trail to run without proper protection.


*EDIT*


          And...They're off!

          Well, the right one kind of broke off. There's a bit left of the rear half. The left one was a bit different. The front 90% of the nail was not attached. So it was just kind of hanging around. What I did was cut most of what was not attached off. What you can see of the left nail is still not attached, but deeper down it's not coming off. I will just have to keep an eye on it.


          The fast majority of my running takes place road or bike trails. Generally my shoes are fairly loose and this gives me the most comfortable fit. However during my recent 50 mile trail race with many steep and fast downhill running my feet did a lot of sliding forward inside the shoe since I left the straps of the shoe relatively loose. This would not have been much of a problem, except I neglected to give my toe nails a good trim before the race. Thus my two big toe nails did a great deal of hitting the inside top front of their respective shoe. This, along with the occasional kick of a rock or root really beat up my toes. My two big toe nails and my left little nail are turning black.

You have not ran far enough, if you have not lost a toe nail doing it.
Or, as they say,
Toe nails are god's way of telling you that you are not running enough.

          However, I would equate it more to kicking shit while running, not having my shoes snug enough, and all the down hill running.


          Damn those little things you don't think of....