August 17th

Distance: 10.5 miles
Song of the Run: No One Mourns the Wicked

Run Notes:
Put in a long run to get ready for the upcoming 20K. It went well, however I am a little worried about blisters under my toenails. I have the runner's nail. I worry about it with the upcoming long run.

Runner's Feet
The ugly truth is that most runners have nasty looking feet. They suffer from wonderful things like toenail fungus, black toenails, and runner's nail. In addition to that the toes and heels are calloused. During the winter I do not mind it so much since my feet are covered, but come summer I want to wear sandals and look girlie. It's hard to do when you have toenails that are falling off.

I keep my nails short. I cut the nail a bit rounded and as short as possible without risking an ingrown toenail. When I do get an infection or blister back behind the nail, I soak the foot in warm water and a disinfectant such as betadine. Then I disinfect a needle and poke the blistered infected area behind the nail to relieve the pressure from the serus fluid. Sometimes I have to do this for a couple of days before it goes away. Continue soaking the area and eventually you can pull off the nail. Sounds awfully painful but by the time you get to this point it doesn't feel so bad.

I cover the now unprotected toe when running. It just doesn't look so great in sandals. I have also read that by removing the nail, which is no longer attached, it shortens the amount of time for a new one to grow back. I have to confess in all honesty that during the summer I tend to try to keep the nail by filing them thin. Then I cover them with a dark nail polish.

Even if I can camoflage my nails, I have to work hard on the rest of my calloused feet. I try to be good by giving myself a pedicure each week. I soak them in a nice epsom salt bath and gently pumice them. The hard part is not pumicing them too far, you need some callous to protect them.

It's a lot of work keeping my feet in shape and they don't always look very pretty. However, for all the work they do during my runs I think it's worth it.