HALF Way There

This year, in lieu of a New Year’s Resolution, I made a list of things I want to accomplish. The list includes small, random act of kindness, trying new activities and travel. I thought instead of committing myself to a year of one challenge, I could dedicate myself to daily goals. “What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.” – Unknown

When I was in high school, my JV field hockey coach ran a full marathon for her 26^th birthday. A marathon in 26.2 miles, which means she ran 26 miles to commemorate and celebrate each year of her life. Having never been much of a runner myself, I doubted I could ever reach such a milestone and I never took training for a race very seriously.

This year, though, as my roommate was planning to run her second half marathon – do the math, now, that’s right: 13.1 miles, she decided for me that I was going to run the Knoxville Covenant Health Half Marathon with her. Still not 100% convinced I had it in me, I said “okay” with little, to no conviction.

When I first started running for sport – not just away from attackers and toward food – the challenge was building my will to continue. Not that I was lacking stamina or strength, but that I thought I was. I developed a mantra, “What kind of person will I be if I stop running?” I’d be a quitter. Not wanting that, I’d push on through pain and uncertainty. Over time, the mantra evolved into, “What kind of person will I be when I finish?” The satisfaction of completing a goal is that much more motivating than the disappointment of failure. This is true in life as well. In fact, I’ve found that a lot of what’s true in running is also true in life. A lot of the time, I don’t feel like running or seeping out of bed, for that matter. With this idea of, “What kind of person will I be when I finish,” I find the will to get up and go even when I don’t feel like it. Even if my body or my mind aren’t able to achieve the day’s running goal, to get up and do it is half the battle. It’s a life lesson: get up and go – “it” being a run or life in general. Nike’s had it right for a long time, “Just Do It!”

After several weeks of training, building our distance from three and four miles to eight and ten, race day finally arrived. Still not 100% convinced I had it in me, I woke up at 5:30 am and laced up for the half. The race took me from downtown, through campus, along the river, down Cherokee Boulevard, along Third Creek Greenway and Tyson Park, into Fort Sanders and finally finishing in Neyland Stadium. It took me from excited, through anxious, along pain and discomfort, into anticipation and finally finished with the biggest swelling surge of endorphins and pride I’d ever felt in my life. As I reached the 11 mile marker, I thought to myself, “two more miles? You’ve already done this five and a half times today. Easy.” As I reached 12, I thought, “one more mile? Push harder.” And when I saw 13, I thought, “You’ve been training for this and you’re about to complete it. You’ve done it.” I opened my stride and I sprinted into Neyland Stadium and nearly cried as I crossed the finish line and a hulking UT football player put a medal around my neck. Two hours and eleven minutes later, weeks of training had brought me to a finish line I never imagined I could cross. Proud!

My relationship with running changed dramatically through my training. Previously, I thought Forrest Gump was the definition of a “runner;” go far, go fast, go for days without an ounce of self-doubt. Previously, I was wrong. The running community is an amazing one; full of encouraging words, Internet groups and motivating memes. It’s not exclusive to the Gumps and Steve Prefontaines of the world. It’s open to anyone brave enough to lace up and take on a new challenge. Even if the challenge is to run to your street sign, if that’s how it starts. I’m ready to train for that full now. I know I’ve got it in me. There’s no greater feeling than setting out to accomplish a goal and then… actually accomplishing it.

In the words of famous runner and author John Bigham, “I am a runner because I run. Not because I run fast. Not because I run far. I am a runner because I say I am. And no one can tell me I’m not.”

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Meditations on an Appalachian City

Sometimes in my deeper thoughts I think of my town, Knoxville, and I wonder where exactly we are. Not geographically or anything measurable like that, but in a less tangible way, more attuned to the dreams and ideas of our growing population of urban southerners and middle-class suburbanites. I mean, here we are, nestled in the hills of East Tennessee, still trying to find an identity over 200 years after our city’s journey began. And quite the journey it has been, from civil war battles to a flagship University, marble mining, country music and beyond. Still, though, standing on the banks of the great Tennessee River, my mind wanders into the unknown future, wondering if I will be a vital part of the dream of this city, coaxing it gently forward and somehow remembering where all rivers lead in the end.

Home, I hear, is where the river ends.

This is how I see it. We all band together and save the railroad, take back the station on the Depot Avenue side, and wake up to find North Knoxville reborn full of life and wonder. Soon the land will hold grass and trees and a vaguely familiar restaurant called Regas, delighting visitors by welcoming them into a thriving theater district framed by daffodils. These illuminated people would look up and see no interstate; only blue sky. But wait, this can’t be real. Maybe it was only a dream I had one night when I fell asleep in Krutch Park and awoke to a strange statue telling me my dreams were dull and impossible.

A FEEL-GOOD BOOK ABOUT SPREADING KINDNESS ON THE ROAD

In mid-July of 2011, author and former Knoxville resident Keith Maginn, and his friend, Emily, set off from Cincinnati, Ohio, on a 3,000-mile road-trip through several southeastern states. The pair stopped in Memphis, New Orleans, Savannah, Charleston, Asheville and smaller towns in between. Goodwill Tour: Paying It Forward is the narrative of the places Emily and Keith visited and the people they met on their journey. They were determined to spread kindness as they worked to make a difference in the lives of others along the way. They gave their own money to handpicked strangers, who then had to pay the money forward to someone else.

From Beale Street to Bourbon Street and Graceland to the Biltmore Estate, from feeding the needy in downtown Charleston to brainstorming ideas with a female Buddhist monk to help abused teens and high school dropouts in North Carolina, Goodwill Tour is an ode to the United States and, even more, a tribute to its people. Readers will enjoy riding shotgun on the trip as they relive the experience of these life-altering events, and contemplate how people changed as a result.

This book satisfies two longings at once: to have a fun, interesting journey and to motivate readers to have an impact on the people around them. With so much negativity in the news and so many struggling in a beaten-down economy, the public is crying out for a feel-good, transformative book like Goodwill Tour. This pay-it-forward mission will touch and inspire readers to take the trip that they’ve always dreamed of or to have a positive effect in the life of a loved one, an acquaintance, or even a complete stranger.

Goodwill Tour: Paying It Forward

Available now on Amazon.com in paperback and e-book (with customer reviews, “Look inside!” the book option, author bio and more). In an effort to spread his message, Keith would like to get reviews and interviews. Author photo and book cover image are attached.

Meditations on an Appalachian City

Sometimes in my deeper thoughts I think of my town, Knoxville, and I wonder where exactly we are. Not geographically or anything measurable like that, but in a less tangible way, more attuned to the dreams and ideas of our growing population of urban southerners and middle-class suburbanites. I mean, here we are, nestled in the hills of East Tennessee, still trying to find an identity over 200 years after our city’s journey began. And quite the journey it has been, from civil war battles to a flagship University, marble mining, country music and beyond. Still, though, standing on the banks of the great Tennessee River, my mind wanders into the unknown future, wondering if I will be a vital part of the dream of this city, coaxing it gently forward and somehow remembering where all rivers lead in the end.

Home, I hear, is where the river ends.