The real danger: broken gRass

BroadArrow

Barefooters
Sep 24, 2014
286
332
63
Illinois
that's right: not glass.

today, i think i sustained my #1 or #2 worst damage to my feet. of course, since my full list of foot damage consists of:

* shard of glass on outer edge of heel (2 years ago)
* stepped on a bee with the bottom bendy part of a toe (1.75 years ago)
* broken grass (today)

i guess it's not a high bar to clear.

so, i was running on the unpaved prairie paths at the park where i always run and there is a bunch of basically straw that got snapped off over the winter that gets blown into the singletrack and ends up laying down oriented along the direction of travel. one of these must have been resting on its neighbor and angled up a little bit. i remember feeling my toe smack it at about mile #2, but finished out my seven miles, ate lunch, did some work standing in my gravel box, etc. it wasn't until a while after i moved my computer over to my desk and sat down that i was messing with my feet and noticed some blood. upon washing, i managed to pull out a 2mm by 2mm square of broken grass from under the corner of my toenail.

now, when the store people throw me out and say, "... because there might be broken glass." i can try to remember to respond, "yeah, well, what you really have to watch out for is broken grass. you don't have any of that in here do you?"
 
I vote for that grass is the most over rated running surface by far...sometimes running thru tall grass gives me small cuts on ankles and lower legs,
 
Gravel bucket?! Ouch!

Just kidding. What a discovery!