Caution- Extreme Grossness Below!

So, did you guess?

Well, here it is in pictures. After the Princess Half Marathon, my left big toe started hurting. Nothing crazy, and I could still run, but I was aware that it was there and not feeling great. A few weeks after that when I was changing polish, I noticed my toe now looked like this:



Thaaaaaat's....not a good thing?

Feeling the first inklings of concern, I did the only thing sensible and painted my toes with OPI's lovely shade of Black Cherry Chutney. Yep, just like turning up the radio to block out the funny noise my car makes, I opted to cover up the problem and pretend it didn't exist. Plus, my toes looked great and were right in line with the end-of-winter colors.




Problem SOLVED! And it looks way awesome too.

I kept this up for a few weeks, working through all my darkest shades, and feeling all happy about my pretty toes as the discomfort in my toe slowly increased. Still not to the point of horrible pain, but I was now having trouble running long distances without it really REALLY hurting.

A few weeks ago, I went deep water running. During some of the flutter kicks, my toe started feeling WEIRD. As in, it hurt a LOT and was starting to feel...well....FLAPPY, is the best I can think of to describe it. Relaxing in the hot tub after DWR, I examined it a bit further, relieved to see foot was still intact (and horrified at thought of nail coming off in public pool?), but something definitely wasn't right.

When I got home, I armed self with some antiseptic and bright lights, and braced myself for the worst. Gave it a little wiggle to see how it looked.



Sure doesn't look like the other toe.

Wouldn't you know it, the whole thing just swung away from the toe bed. Trying not to vomit, I tugged a bit, terrified it was going to hurt, but the whole thing wouldn't quite come off. No pain though. I was able to cut the whole nail off.



No No No No No NO NO NOOOOO!!!!!



It looks like a giant beetle. It was
prettier on my foot than in my hand :(



It actually looks even worse now too.

I spent the next few minutes staring at the nail and fighting off waves of horror. And nausea. And rage that this had happened just as open toe shoe season was starting. And just the teeniest sense of pride...only Very Real And Serious Runners lose toenails. But mostly horror. But hey, toe felt fantastic after that, no pain at all!

You can't fake the horror in my eyes.

I've had a few weeks to try to get used to it as the new nail slowly grows in (seriously, this means closed toed shoes ALL SUMMER) , but I am still totally grossed out by self. And I just can't muster up the courage to book my first pedicure of the summer....maybe I can get a 10% discount??

Tomorrow is my long run day and I'm going to run around the reservoir. That means a fresh self pedi afterwards, which feels great after a long run. Am sticking to pale pinks only these days so as not to draw attention to feet!