Why I am strangely proud of my black toe nail....

Contrary to what I had thought, I am not a bit sore after these past two weekends of racing. My legs have held up like champs and I felt really fresh running four miles yesterday. However, I do have one souvenir from my races that I am strangely proud of. A black toe nail.

After the half marathon, as I went to take off my shoes, I mentioned to Wes that I would probably have a little blister on my right middle toe. Upon further inspection I found out that it was, in fact, quite a large blister that encompassed the whole top part of the toe. Wes took a look and said, "Oh yeah, that's a good one. And you're gonna lose that toe nail."

Now, four years ago a comment like that would have sent me into a tailspin. Lose my toe nail?! Won't that hurt? What will I do about wearing flip flops? I mean, you can't very well show your feet if one of the toes is missing a nail! All those thoughts would have run through my mind. But not these days. This time I looked at the nail and simply thought, "Cool." I waited for several days to see what would happen and sure enough, after the Bridge Run, I removed my shoe to see that the nail had finally turned completely black and now I am just waiting for it to fall off.

The weird thing is that I am kind of glad that it is flip flop season and my mangled toe nail will be on display for all to see. I can't wait for someone to ask me what happened so that I can casually say, "Oh that? That's nothing, I ran 13 miles one weekend and it will probably fall off. Whatever."

To me that toe nail represents the fact that not only am I a runner, but I am a runner with battle scars. It means that at some point I was pushing past discomfort in order to achieve my goals. It means that my mental toughness is a million times stronger than it used to be. It means that even if my time goal was not meant at that half, that I am still improving in ways that can't be measured by a clock. That I am past the days of quitting when things get uncomfortable. Which is why, even though it is gross to some, my black toe nail is totally cool to me.