I am so relieved that black toe nails are normal. I just finished running a first 1/2 marathon and noticed the next day that my second toe hurt and my jaw hurt. My toe is now purple..no more pain, but looks like death. I'm hoping this won't cause too much of a problem for the triathlon I'm doing in a month. Can you still run with a warped toe?

Hi Y'all,

I'm not a runner or a walker other than walking normal. But I have a toe that is turning black. Glad to know it's nothing to worry about, but it is rather disconcerting at first. Toenails will grow back unless the matrix is damaged. Don't let anyone kill the matrix, doctor or not. The toenail will grow back and will be a little bumpy but disappears as the nail grows and grows and you clip and clip. Happy nail growing and clipping and running and walking and so on.

so i kinda have the same problem but my toenails didn't turn black they turned yellow and started to loosen and 2 Have fallen off already and two more are loosening and it's really gross. Unlike some of you i don't run but i do walk alot. I don't know if i should go to the doctor or something. But i just thought i would share that with you all.

I have a question.....I also did a lot of walking for 3 days and as you can already imagine...I got blisters under my nails...well juts on my big toes. I went to the podiatrist and he told me that my nails are dead and that he would have to remove them...but they would never grow back again....apparently they put a medicine to make them not ever grow...is that normal? Or can they grow back if I just let them fall off on their own?

Glad to hear my black toenail is a common occurence. I've upped my running in recent months preparing for a marathon and one day while changing my nailpolish noticed the black nail. I thought it would just go away and then one of my sisters freaked me out into thinking I had cancer!! I hid the nail again and am just waiting to see if it will fall off ... I'd heard about black toes and now I know I'm not gonna die anytime soon!!

I'm a year too late to join the party, but have the same question as a poster above.. I was in a bad bike accident 2 1/2 months ago and I banged my toe badly.. well now my other injuries have healed and my toe nail is falling out and it's creepy. I heard (a myth?) that sometimes they don't grow back. Is that true?

Also funny, because unless I pull of my nail, I feel like I can ONLY wear flipflps or else the nail will rub and hurt my foot. Gross I know. :(

Hi,
I'm training for a marathon in June and a few months ago I noticed that 2 of my toenails were bruised and my toes hurt all the time. I bought bigger shoes and still my toes hurt and then I noiced that there was dried blood behind 2 of the nails. A foot dr told me that you can drain the blood when the injury's fresh; no luck in my case because my toenails are always painted red, so it hid the bruise for a while.
Well, Sunday I bumped my toe and I later realized that the nail from one toe fell off. The other bruised nail is still attached. I'm happy to say that the pain from one toe is gone, but now there's a "mini" toenail composed of hardened blood in its place; it goes great with my pedicure. Ha!
Anyway, the coagulated mass looks like it's pushed up from the nailbed. I'm wondering if anyone knows what will happen next? Will that bloody thing fall off when a new nail starts to grow back? Or will the new nail grow behind the blood? Or, I hope not!, will the new nail grow over the dried blood?
Sorry I can't attach a pic to this forum; it's a funny sight. ;-)
Thanks for your comments and advice.
Peace,
Jen

Well I don't feel so bad. Walk at least 10 to 20 K a day and lost two toenails. Have New Balance cross trainers that have never bothered my feet when I ran 6 k, so it have to do with distance.

I am a running priss. DO THEY GROW BACK FOR SURE? I just had one fall off and it is freaking me out!!!!!!!!

Just got my first black toe nail, ever.

After my run, I trimmed the excess nail away and a red ooze exited from the top of the nail. It's sore, but I can still run. Yeah!!

yeah umm i kinda had the same thing happen to me,except i hit my little toe on a bench at church camp and i did not think anything about it then it started bleeding then a few weeks later the toenail turned black then it got loose and as of right now my toenail is sticking up and should fall off in like a day or two...but its pretty gross, i can not wait till my toenail grows back because i want to wear flip flops again.

I think I speak for others when I say "eewwwww!" However, it's another fascinating look at something I, a non-runner, would never otherwise have heard about. Thanks... I guess.

Sounds like Jeff Goldblum in "The Fly". Can you walk on the ceiling yet?

I've never had black toenails, but I have two that are permanently split down the middle from running.

Uch - this is sooooo gross! But it's something people should know about (like male runners and bleeding nipples - there's your next blog post btw).

I have not had to deal with the dreaded black toenails but then I don't log as much mileage as you do. I suspect that this is a problem that plagues more marathoners than anybody else (as the only folks I've heard from about this are marathoners). Now that I'm training for my first I'm on high alert!

Also, different shoes have different lasts. New Balance has a huge toe box. Asics is more pointy. I wonder if different lasts (narrow vs wide) contribute? I would think so ...