(wo)man vs. machine

runner's lounge is holding another giveaway, and this time it's for some sweet iron-on reflectors from see-me-run. thinking back on my own running-mishaps i thought i should definitely get in on this one.

you see, in the early spring of 2007, my right big toenail was causing me a bit of pain when i ran, and i went to see a podiatrist. unfortunately he had the attitude of most medical professionals in regards to running and did not find my other purplish-black toenail to be as cool as i thought it was. my right toenail was ingrown and i had to have ingrown toenail surgery. i had to wear an attractive black shoe-boot for about two weeks to alleviate any pressure on the area and to prevent what was left of my nail from being knocked loose by rubbing against a toe box. obviously i was also not supposed to run or perform ‘strenuous activity’ for two weeks. two weeks! for a toenail! you’d have to be crazy to think i’d stay out of my running shoes that long, especially for just a toenail.


toe box problem? solved. i didn’t want to ruin any of the shoes i was running in at the present time, so i took an older pair and cut the toe box off of the right shoe so that i could still run. (i don't remember why the heel was also cut away, but i presume it may have made it easier to slide my gimp toe in the shoe without jamming it against the sides along the way.) i also took a sock and cut the big toe tip off.


don’t ask me why i still hold onto both the cut up shoe and sock. sentimental reasons? maybe. or perhaps i'm planning for the inevitable, and the day when i may need to run in them again.

like most runners would do, i kind of heeded doc’s advice. i took one day off from running following the surgery. one day, fourteen days, it’s all the same. it’s just a freakin' toenail after all. my altered shoe and sock seemed to work fine and i was no longer having any pain.

about a week after the surgery, i was running with my friend katie on our normal route. we got to an intersection and stopped to wait for the traffic to clear. a four-door sedan was coming up from our left and turning right onto the road we were running on. don’t ask me where my eyes were looking. i thought the car had rolled on through the turn and i stepped off the sidewalk, into the back passenger side door of the car. (like i said, don’t ask where my brain or eyes were.) my arm hit the roof of the car and the right rear tire ran over my right foot as it turned and continued on it’s way. yeah, my newly-removed-ingrown-toenail-right foot that was exposed to the elements because of my brilliant idea to cut off the toebox and run anyway. katie was on my left and when she stepped off the sidewalk to run she was safely behind the car. we crossed the intersection, ran a few feet and she goes, wait, did that car just run over your foot? i was ever-so-slightly limping but i wasn’t in much pain. the skin on my toes had been rubbed off and that burned a little, but my toe/toenail felt ok. katie, in school at the time for nursing, forced me to turn around and walk/jog back to our cars (about 1.5 miles).

we got back to our cars and sat down to assess the situation. my toenail actually looked ok. the skin was pulled off, but there wasn’t much bleeding and the toenail still looked attached as far as i could tell. i dreaded having to call the podiatrist in the morning to tell him that not only did i not-listen to him, but i also managed to get my foot runover as well.

luckily, there was no ‘damage’ from the incident. no bones had been broken and the toenail was still clinging to my toe bed. i didn’t even get too bad of a lecture from the doc, must’ve been my cute and innocent face, right?

while i managed to get away without anything more than a scrape, the situation could have been a lot worse. i know this incident happened because i was not paying attention, and as runner’s we need to be even more alert to our surroundings than normal. i already do not run with music (just a personal preference) but when i know someone heading out for a run with an ipod i make sure to remind them to not crank up the volume too loud so they can hear the cars and people around them. i have become more and more attentive to my surroundings, especially on a run, and sometimes i get back to the house and can list off a few license plates and cars that i saw. so be safe running, whether in dawn, broad daylight, dusk, or the darkness of night. we are all behind the wheel at times ourselves and i know you are not always giving your full attention to the road then either ;-)