Discovering a new trail

Run #23 took me to a brand-new place for this 52@52 challenge: the Iron Horse Trail, on the northeast side of the Bay Area. It’s a long, paved multi‑use trail that follows an old railroad corridor and connects several cities, which makes it feel both practical and scenic at the same time. For a first visit, it was a great introduction to a route I can definitely see myself using again for future long runs.

Paula on the bike: camera and water crew

As has become a very welcome habit, Paula was with me on the bike again for this run. This time she officially took on two roles: camerawoman and water support, riding ahead or alongside to grab some footage and keeping a bottle of water handy whenever I needed a quick break. Having her there turns these long efforts from just “time on feet” into shared outings, and on a new trail like this one it was especially nice not to be exploring alone.

Dark Matter, done and dusted

One highlight of the day was in my ears rather than under my feet: I finished listening to Dark Matter by Blake Crouch during this run. The ending kept the same intense, mind‑bending vibe as the rest of the book, and it was nice to at least have a great story to distract me from staring at the treadmill screen for so long. With the book wrapped up, I can finally think about checking out the TV series adaptation next—preferably while not running indoors.