SpartanGirl says:

Hi, do you get bruised toenails after running? Anyone know how to prevent it? I've been having this happen lately and am hoping I can make it stop.

 HokieDokie says:

Sorry, SpartanGirl, I'm afraid I don't have good news. First question --- yes, I have one or two black toenails at all times, and when I took off a long time from running it took months to go away. Second question   --- no, I don't really know how to prevent it.   I think if you're very careful about having properly fitting shoes, and you keep your nails well cut at all times then it minimizes the bruising, but I'm not sure if it's eliminated.

 LauraMoncur says:

Increasing your mileage more slowly can also prevent bruised toenails.

I got wider shoes and got them a half size larger than I needed. When you go on a long run, your feet can swell almost a full shoe size, especially in hot weather.

Larger shoes should help.

 ncos says:

yeah this happened to me and I was told to buy the next half size up when i needed new shoes...seemed to have worked but lost 2 toenails in the process, nice momentoes tho

 MarkedMan says:

Had a lengthy problem with this until I realized that my size 10-10 1/2 mens had somehow becom 10 1/2 to 11. That and keeping my toenails trimmed down fixed the problem for me.

 Rasmus says:

I'm going through this now. It's called "Runner's Toe" or "Black Toe" and it is something every runner ends up with at some point, I think. Jeff Galloway has a good article on it here:

www.jeffgalloway.com/training/injury_archives/black_toe.html

Slightly larger shoes as others have said might help, but even then that might cause your feet to slide around more and there are just certain shapes of feet that are hard to fit perfectly in a shoe no matter how well you lace them. You could also try wearing something like this:

www.feetrelief.com/feetrelief/deluxe_toe_cap.htm

On the toes that are prone to this.

 paoloboza says:

I've seen your latest runs... Your mileage is not very high so is quite strange. Anyway I've been affected too after a 12Km run and I realize that the principal cause is the socks too small and maybe too much thin.
Since you're woman (and let me say: a pretty one) don't worry about black nails and varnish them!

 sprinterpain says:

I was running in the cold so I put ski socks on and they were tight... so I then lost a toenail. I go with the others on getting a bigger size shoe or one with a large space for your toes.

 clayberg says:

 clayberg says:

Came across this picture on one of the favorite bloggers-

Thought this was funny and the more I think about it's really GROSS- thought I would share it;P