Black toenails

Earlier this year, my wife and I went to get pedicures. And as I sat down, I remember th...

... yeah, I get pedicures. What? I like 'em, alright....

Uh, anyway, the lady asked me if I wanted to paint my toenails. I was like, nah, I'm cool. I like to indulge but I gotta draw the line somewhere. But as my feet sat in the hot water and as the lady rubbed my feet and my legs and sent me into a blissful relaxation, I thought that it might be kind of cool to paint my toenails black. It'd be different, something I've never done before and black isn't really girly or anything. I'm not getting a pink flower on it or something, right? So what's the harm?

Ultimately, though, I didn't opt for black. But she slapped some clear nail polish on my toes anyway, because, uh, um... well, I just said screw it, okay? It was just for shits and giggles, I suppose.

Well, my toes have started to turn black and nail polish doesn't have anything to do with it. In January or so, the second toe on my right foot started to hurt, to the point where it bothered me while I ran. For a few days it hurt, and then it kinda went away. And my nail turned black. And it's still black.

Last week, the same toe on my left leg also went through the same process. It hurt for a few days, then the pain went away. And just yesterday, I realized that my nail was all black. Nice.

I showed my wife and she was not very happy with me. I kinda just lifted my toe up close so she could get a good look, so I might understand her initial displeasure. But I think it's pretty cool to be honest. I have matching black toenails. How cool is that?

We were having this conversation last night, and I told her that I felt that sort of made me a runner, an official runner. My bloody nipples are one thing, but to have something tangible like black toenails is pretty cool, like a... well, I called it a rite of passage but that wasn't quite right.

My wife said "like a badge of honor?"

Yeah! A badge of honor! That's it. my black toenails are my badges of honor.

I went and got my runner's handbook and looked up the index.

toenails 567-69

I flipped through there and found that I probably caused the black toenail situation by not having kept the nails short. Apparently, long toenails combined with the constant friction of running can cause blistering under the toenail. Blisters can turn black, and the book says to leave them alone if that happens.

At the end of the section on black toenails, it said the following, which I got a giant kick out of:

"Most runners experience black toenails. Consider it a badge of honor!'