hallucinations

I hesitate to post this as it may involve a little too much information for some people concerning my toenails. But this is our blog and this is a big deal to me so I must write about it.

20 miles today. It was heart wrenching, in the rain and humidity and I did it! There were many ups and downs. The only ups being the completion and finally obtaining my beloved water bottle. A few of the downs included dropping my Gatorade on the trail 15 miles in and taking 5 painful minutes of attempting to bend down and pick it up. And then there were the hallucinations.

Apparently some marathon runners loose toenails. Your feet take a huge beating every time you take a step. I can assume the science of how it happens but this is not the place to discuss that. I had a pedicure done a few weeks ago. My toes are always painted. Always. The girl took of the polish to reapply and I noticed a small black area on my fourth toe, right foot. This cannot happen to me. I just cannot accept this! I had a fit about this and finally the girl politely told me that the only way for that to stop was to stop running. Well, we all know that can't happen.

So that brings us to today. About 3 hours into this run my toes started to bother me. "Hmmm" I thought. "This isn't good. I cannot loose my toenails today. Not any day for that matter!". The more I ran the more I felt that my nails were being ripped from my toes. I actually looked down and thought I would for sure see blood on my shoes from this. I knew that when I took off my shoes my bare toes would be underneath my socks. I had to continue on with the run, I had no choice but to soldier on and mourn the sure loss of my toenails.

I am happy to report this afternoon that I still am the owner of 10 toenails, on my toes. My vivid hallucinations of my toenail loss is still disturbing to me but again I will soldier on.

Lets save our toenails and begin to taper!!!

jms