I am suffering from sore toes and received a nice set of black toenails (only 2 toes) during my 1/2 marathon. With only 8 miles as my long run in preparation for the October 21st Columbus Marathon, my toes are already starting to hurt.

I did some reaseach on it and came up with this for personal reference.

Jeff Galloway’s Injury Archives: Black Toenails

About: Black Toenail from Running or Walking

Some tips:

• Go to a runnig shoe store and have a professional fit you with a pair of shoes
• Buy shoes 1/2 or 1 size bigger than your street shoes
• Clip your toe nails before running
• Lace your shoes properly to keep the heel in the heelbox
• Don’t increase your milage too drastically, your toes need to learn to take the pounding

It appears that a lot of people suffer from black toenails when running. Some of them minimize the discomfort with getting bigger shoes, etc, but in general, if you run (specially long runs) there is a high chance you end up with black toenails. Oh the fun!

Edit: May 28th, 2011

I still get sore toes when I run, but the toenails no longer turn purple and fall off…perhaps my toes have toughen up over the years of running. 🙂