By Curtis Jones in exercise — 14 Sep 2026

A Gauntlet of Spider Webs

Being first on the trail each morning has one cost: my face clears every spider web strung across it overnight. This is the season of the big harmless ones, prolific and everywhere, and the webs on the road were somehow worse than the trail. I hope the runners behind me are grateful.

Once again, my legs don't quite look like that. The spider webs, as depicted, are realistic though. Except that they tend to be invisible.

I want to "up" my photography game and this camera is precisely how I want to accomplish that. My iPhone 13 Mini's camera is a bit long in the tooth (it was never great to begin with). I have no interest in "upgrading" my iPhone to any of the monstrous beasts that have come after it. When Apple decides to make a new Mini, I'll be first in line. Or, even better, if Apple decided to make an even smaller iPhone.... Honestly, if I could just switch to some basic flip phone without any negative implications for my Apple Dev / iCloud stuff, I'd consider that. I wonder if that's possible. I guess I could keep my iPhone (sans cell service) for the sake of pairing with my Apple Watch.

Anyway, the budget doesn't permit for camera upgrades at the moment. One day, probably.

5am Wakeup

I woke up this morning at precisely 5am. Turkey is (I discovered) at a much higher latitude. It was basically light out when I'd wake up in the morning. Back here in Georgia, I have to burn an hour and a half waiting for the sun to make its appearance. I'm dreading this run though. Seasonally, we get these harmless, but prolific and enormous spiders, which appear everywhere. I'm undoubtedly going to be the first person out on the trail, which means my face is going to clear a bunch of webs. Running on the trails in the winter has so many upsides. I hope the people who follow me on the trails appreciate my sacrifice.

I'm picturing the image for this blog post: me, running a gauntlet of spider webs through the woods.