Travel Diary

Another long day of running? Could my body handle it? Plus, I was already sore from the day before. But there was only one way to find out. For this run, I decided on the Iron Horse Trail, and no taking the drone for this run as there wouldn’t be many places where I could even launch it.

I headed east a bit on Owens Drive, and then ducked under the freeway at the Hacienda BART Station, where I was hoping to connect right up to the Iron Horse Trail, but it was closed off at that point. I wasn't sure why at the moment. But I ran around some condo developments, and crossed Dublin Blvd. near Camp Parks. Then I found a new community park (Don Biddle Park), which was pretty amazing. It's huge with vast lawns and playgrounds for families. At that point, I could see that the new pedestrian overpass (the lights take forever there!) was in place, but I guess just not finished yet so it wasn't usable. It would've been pretty cool to go across that. I imagine it's gonna be very handy when it's done, especially if I still lived there. Enjoy it, people!

Finally, I reached the trail again, even passing by my old rental condo in Dublin without even realizing it. It’s just that one side of the street used to be Camp Parks, but now was entirely new condos (The Army is shrinking!) so I just didn't have any bearing of where I was. But once I crossed over Dougherty Road, I definitely knew where I was. I entered the Iron Horse trail at that point and started heading north. I wouldn't be running very fast as I was sore, but I could still manage to be in motion and a decent rate--for me at least. Once I crossed by the very long Dublin high school area which ends at the Walmart Shopping Center area, I saw a sign saying that the Ironhorse Trail was closed at the point of the golf links in San Ramon. This was disappointing, but wait! There were people still going on it and coming out of it, so I figured it wasn't that “closed. I guess they were redoing the path or something, but at the time, no work was being done. I hopped on the trails and went north farther and found a place where I knew there was a drinking fountain, and I stopped there. In fact, they used to have even a porta potty, but that was gone now. I still appreciated the drinking fountain as I wasn’t keeping my water bottle too full (it weighs too much!) As well, they also upgraded the street crossings to have motion detectors automatically engage and activate the signals once you get close. Very handy and helpful for safety.

I continued north and passed by many of the old places I used to jog by, though mostly it's just a very long straight trail heading north and south. At Crow Canyon, the path was closed again and this time, there was a caterpillar construction vehicle actually working at the moment (leveling dirt or what not), so I couldn't go on it at that point, as it would've looked really bad. I headed east a bit and then jogged through some neighborhoods until I could connect to the trail once again. I used the word “jogged,” but with the hills in that area, yeah, it was “walked.”

I really wanted to reach Danville, but my legs were getting really sore. Plus, every step out would mean another step back home. Yet I was too close not to complete my mission, so I mustered up some strength and stamina, ignored the pain, and pushed onward, though again, I was mostly walking at that point. About 12 miles since I first started, I finally entered into Danville, but not too far in. I mainly just went to a small supermarket and bought an overpriced banana, which I really needed at that point. Then it was time to turn around and head back with no great fanfare or purpose (like in the Forrest Gump movie). Luckily, it was near the longest day of summer so I had plenty of daylight; however, the temperature was dropping rather fast so that would not do at all. No, sir! Going home was pretty tough. I was getting very sore now, and while the pain wasn’t getting too much worse (I could still walk), the blisters on my toes I could feel getting bigger. I was hoping they didn’t pop and ruin my nice socks.

I reached Pleasanton at about 22 miles and really wanted to get up to 26, but I was walking so it didn't really count as a marathon, and I didn't want my blisters to get much bigger and, most importantly, it was just too darn cold. I headed back to the hotel and finished at 23 miles. At the hotel, I showered and relaxed, and worked on some videos. For some food, I returned to Burger King next door again and then just enjoyed a pleasant and peaceful evening. I also had to pack everything up, as I was leaving in the morning.

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