The State of My Toes

Running improves your appearance, doesn't it?

That's what I thought.  It is partly true.  It makes you stronger and improves your cardio, while giving you shapely legs.  It does, however, do some less enjoyable things to your feet.

This is what my toes look like when viewed from above:

The shiny, red polish is not just there for the pretty colour; it is there to hide the horror beneath.

The most recent bit of damage appeared after this morning's run.  At first sight, it looks like a hangnail, but it is in fact a sliver of nail that has broken off and been ripped upwards... the red underneath is not polish, but a little section of naked flesh.

This is slightly gross, but perhaps not so impressive.

Something slightly more revolting can be found by looking under my littlest toes.  The right pinky toenail looks as though it is made of three nails stuck one on top of the other.

The littlest left toenail is sort of squished and sticks up in the air.   I'm not sure what the brown stuff is, but it's as hard as the nail itself.

But, Rebecca, those kind of look like my toenails...

The toenail that I find the most impressive is on the middle toe of my right foot.  If you look back at the first picture, you may notice a bruise along the bottom edge of the middle toenail.  That is in fact the last point at which the nail is in contact with my toe; it moves up and down freely as if on a hinge.

Care to place bets as to whether it will fall off sometime during the race next weekend?

Next weekend???

Yes, indeed!  The Nike Women's Marathon is next weekend!  I will be running the half marathon along with a nice big group of purple clad friends.  There will, in fact, be purple people from every TNT chapter in North America,  It is going to be crazy!  I'm going to love every minute of it!

If you'd like your name to appear on my shirt by race day, now is the time to let me know.  Save your spot at http://bit.ly/SponsorReb.