Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

Wendy Bumgardener over at About.com has an injured toe from hiking a trail with ill-fitting shoes.

• Walking About.com – Black Toenail

Black toenail is a common injury among runners, but can be avoided with proper shoe fitting and lacing techniques. It is covered so often by running magazines that I’m surprised that I have never had trouble with it. I’ve worn Ryka running shoes ever since I first started running, so I’ve never had trouble. I’m also reluctant to change shoes because of black toenail horror stories.

Black toenail has nothing to do with fungus (that’s a different malady). It is an injury to your toe from constant pressure from shoes. It’s like a bruise under your toenail, except if it’s bad enough, you can lose the nail.

Here is a technical explanation of black toenail from Wikipedia:

• Subungual hematoma – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If you want to avoid getting a black toenail, here are some resources:

• Jeff Galloway Training – Injury Archives – Black Toenails

• About.com – Black Toenail from Running or Walking

• Footcare for the Woman runner – Women’s section – Time-to-Run – women’s on-line running information

• Weblog – London Marathon – Times Online: The curse of the black toenail

After reading so many stories from people who have had black toenail, I’m surprised that I’ve never experienced it. I’ve had sore toes after hiking for too long in the wrong shoes, but I’ve been fortunate enough to not have this problem. If you have, don’t worry. It’s VERY common. As one runner said it:

“I use my toes to tell the seasons. If my first two toes are black then it is running season. If my little toe is black it is cross country skiing season. If I don’t have any black toes then I’m 10 pounds over weight. It is easy to run withseveral black toes than with 10 extra pounds.” – Jim Benike at UltRunR