Who knew running could be so GROSS? I am training for my first marathon (the ING New York City marathon, on Nov. 1), and I’m kind of shocked by all the physical nastiness that goes along with it. This is probably way too much information, but I’m hoping other runners out there will relate—or tell me what other disturbing occurrences I have to look forward to as my distances increase. Ah, the joys of exercise.
1. Toenails Fall Off. Yeah, we’ve all heard this happens to marathoners, but I really wasn’t expecting it to occur so quickly after I started training for a half-marathon four years ago: The toenail on the second toe of my right foot turned black and then fell off. I do have strangely long second toes, but I thought I could keep that nail attached this time by trimming it frequently. Nope. It’s already black, and I still have two and a half months to go before the big race. My marathon friends tell me it might get even worse as I run farther: bloody toenails!
2. Smelly Clothes. When I worked out only a couple of days a week, I could discreetly hang up my sweaty running gear in a closet to dry out so they weren’t on display for everyone to see before I got around to putting them into the laundry hamper. But now that it’s an everyday thing, the clothes seem to have multiplied—dirty bras, underwear, shirts and socks hang everywhere I look.
3. Sweat Down There. Speaking of clothes, most running shorts available now are brilliant because they have built-in underwear made of a lightweight mesh that allows your hot spots to “breathe.” The problem is, if you’re running every day and you don’t have time to keep up with your laundry (see #2), you resort to using your OLD running shorts, which have to be worn with a real pair of underwear, which doesn’t allow you to breathe. And after 10 miles of sweat, there are some places where you want a little air. Thus, I have taken to cutting strategic holes in them—and believe me, these crotch-less undies are not sexy.
