Local Runner Pastes Toenail Into Marathon Keepsake Album
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A local scrapbooking enthusiast spent some time over the weekend updating her “Marathon Memories” album, Dumb Runner has learned, carefully pasting a black toenail into its pages.
Kara Tin, 38, an avid runner and eight-time marathoner, lost the toenail last week, sources said, in week nine of a three-month training plan for an upcoming race. It is the sixth toenail Tin has added to the keepsake album, which also includes mementos such as bib numbers, photos, and training plan print-outs.
“There,” Tin said as she pressed the toenail into place, just above the handwritten date of its loss. “Perfect.”
Tin told Dumb Runner that she’s been keeping scrapbooks almost as long as she’s been a runner, and that she created the marathon album while training for her first such race, nine years ago.
“As a runner and a fan of old-school media, it made sense,” she said, adding that she likes having a “real, tangible” record of her accomplishments, not just a digital one.
“A photo on my phone of a missing toenail is one thing,” she said. “But to be able to see and touch the actual nail … that’s something else entirely.”
With eight marathons under her belt and more to come, however, Tin says she’ll soon need a second “Marathon Memories” album to accommodate her memorabilia.
“Which is wonderful,” she said, “because I’m creating something I can treasure in my old age, and, when I’m gone, that my children can have to remember me by.”
“They’re already fighting over who will inherit my toenails,” she added. “It’s sweet.”
