Toenails Are for Sissies

Have you ever cracked a toenail? How about losing the whole thing? It hurts, huh? 

So everyone wants to keep their toenails. Right?

Wrong!

According to this article, ultra-marathon runners don’t like toenails. In fact, they get rid of them! That’s because an ultra-marathon is from 50-100 miles. The runners are tough, but their toenails aren’t. And after your toenails have been bumping against the front of your running shoe for the last 75 miles, they start to hurt.

Dr. Robert M. Conenello says a lot of these hardcore runners “look at their toenails as useless... they say, ‘Toenails are dead weight.’” So the runners have their toenails surgically removed. 

If you take off ALL the nails, then your toes look like bald-headed little men. But if you only remove the nails that are a problem, then you get a “checkerboard look” when you wear sandals. Nice!

Probably the smartest quote in this article is this: “You know any sport has gone off the rails when you have to remove body parts to do it.” The cool thing is that even after “permanent removal,” toenails can grow back. 

Because just like an ultra-marathon runner, toenails don’t give up!

Photos from the New York Times.