Nedd Brockmann, the Australian hero who ran from Perth, Western Australia to Bondi Beach, Sydney in just 47 days, didn’t go without his fair share of (expected) injuries on his journey. But maggot-infested toenails could be too much to stomach for some.
Speaking recently on The Inspired Unemployed Podcast, Nedd Brockmann left no detail unspoken when talking about how he came to find maggots on his feet part way through his mammoth marathon run.
WATCH: Nedd Brockmann Explains How He Found Maggots Under His Toenails
Explaining to the comedic duo that the discovery happened “along the Nullarbor,” the huge, 200,000 square km expanse of arid land in South Australia, Nedd adds that there were “a lot of flies.” These flies, mixed with the fact “my toenails obviously fall off when you’re banging the pavement each day,” is a recipe for vomit-inducing disaster.
Unbeknownst to Nedd, at least one bastard fly got into his shoes and the rest, as they say, is history. “Somehow, when I was sockless, a fly flew into to my toenail and laid in some eggs.”
Jack, one half of The Inspired Unemployed, was done already, just responding with “Nup.” Us too, to be honest.
“Four days later,” Nedd continues, “I’m in the Nullarbor Roadhouse, in the middle of the night, I thought I had a bit of an ingrown toenail. So I’m pulling it back, it was keeping me up at night. I was like, ‘this is not good’.”
“So I woke up, clipped a bit of the toenail away, tried to fix it.” Matt Ford, the other member of The Inspired Unemployed, chimed in with “so it’s under your toenail?” referring to the aforementioned maggots, to which Nedd confirms
“It was under the toenail, like in between the skin and toenail.”
Nedd Brockmann
At this point, we’re probably all siding with The Inspired Unemployed boys when they simply exclaim, “Yuuuuuck.”
But, Nedd wasn’t going to let it get in his way. He knew he had a run to finish, which he not only wanted to complete for charity – he raised money for We Are Mobilise, a charity that supports homelessness in Australia – but he was also aiming to become the fastest man to complete the race.
“I got into the caravan to spray it with some alcohol, and I saw something moving, and I’m like ‘ohhh!’ And then, yeah there was five maggots, just feasting away. Then we got the cotton bud and scraped them out and then, we were good to go.”
Naturally, the admission of such a horrific ordeal has had the comments section of the post churning out comments faster than our own projectile of sin. Comments include,
“I feel physically ill,”
“This is f***ing rank,”
and,
“New fear unlocked oh my f**k.”
There were also plenty of comments in, admittedly deserved, praise for the young guy from Forbes, NSW. “Who’s going to carry the boats and logs? Mental toughness is next level. Unbelievable.”
“Aaaaand he just kept running!,”
and,
“How bloody resilient is he. I would’ve fainted.”
If anything, Nedd’s story more than deserves yet more donations for his chosen charity. Upon crossing the finish line at Bondi Beach, Nedd had raised $1.5 million for his charity. That figure has since increased to $2.5 million. Let’s hope he can get it to at least three.
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