Twenty-four years of March 3rds tell a story about learning the hard way, then doing it all over again anyway.
It starts in 2002 with hiking into exhaustion, those legs singing their bluesy symphony, the brain checking out around mile two. Classic rookie territory. Then by 2006, the website vanishes into the digital void, dial-up speeds making recovery feel impossible. Some lessons come from the trails, others from technology refusing to cooperate.
The 2010 entry captures something beautiful, a Water Color moment in Missoula while waiting for a training buddy who ended up on the wrong mountain ridge. Miscommunication and muddy adventures, the usual suspects. By 2011, friends are leaving behind random treasures, from impractically large screwdrivers to box fans, proof that people drift through our lives and leave pieces of themselves.
Then comes 2012, the Togwotee Winter Classic, where a GPS predicted 8 hours of suffering and got proven wrong. Shadowing Jay Petervary through a snowstorm, learning the secret language of snow biking. Four years later, the 5th Togwotee approaches with a "prep ride" instead of proper training. Honesty about preparedness is its own kind of wisdom.
The 2024 entries hit different, one about surviving Mondays wrapped in nostalgia, another about searching for meaning in morning coffee and old memories. And 2025 brings a deep dive into AI privacy, because apparently March 3rd is also for rabbit holes.
From exhausted legs to digital voids to snowstorm victories, this date keeps reminding me that showing up unprepared still beats not showing up at all.