Twenty-five years of August 16ths and somehow they all rhyme. Back in 2001 it was a sleepless night updating a website and dreaming up a hockey simulator called BHL, BHL Will Be Back, proof that this restless need to build something has been around a long, long time. By 2007 the restlessness had legs, literally, as a Wednesday night race turned into an unexpected solo battle for the podium, chronicled in Finishing Alone.
A year later came the punishing, glorious slog of South Side Dirt Road Ride, questioning life choices mid-pedal, the way we do. Then friends gathering for 27 Hours of Together, a moonlit scramble to a lake in Necklace Lakes weekend part 1, and a smoky, flu-tinged daydream of an emerald lake in Denial.
The years kept stacking, a parade stumbled into in Livingston parade, a lake-hopping singletrack epic in Hauser to Losekamp to Stockdale to Top, a stripped-down summary in Today in 30 seconds, a downhill run mostly for my own memory in Parker Point DH Full Run POV, a romantic wander through MaClay Flats in Joyful Trails, and last year's honest wrestling match with the couch in Couch vs. Mountain.
What strikes me looking back is how little the core has changed. Still chasing the ride, still dragging myself off the couch, still finding friends at the end of a trail or a smoky race course. Some years I finished alone, some years surrounded, but every August 16th says the same thing: get outside, it's worth it.