Running with Endurance
It’s 11:00 a.m. on Monday, February 29, 2016, and my legs are slowly working through the soreness of having run 13.1 miles yesterday at the annual Cowtown half marathon in Fort Worth. I decided in mid-January to register for the event because I thought the mental aspect of running would sharpen my focus and help me keep pace with my writing, which has become a race of endurance in itself.
I picked up long-distance running five years ago for no other reason than to see if I could do it. Four half and two full marathons later, I still consider the whole running process as laborious now as I did back then. The only reason I continue to register for an occasional race is because the disciplined training regimen holds me accountable, not only physically, but also mentally and spiritually.
The monotony of running has a strange correlation to the monotony of writing, both of which tend to test my attention span as much as they do my resolve. Using the little free time I have each week to run or write is always a difficult sacrifice to make, especially when it involves two pastimes so solitary in nature. I suppose the upside of spending so many hours in quiet introspection is learning more about myself in the process.
Call it a quest of self-discovery that I re-experience vicariously through the lives of each of the characters in my book. For all of their differences, each character shares specific qualities—good and bad—with me. The most fulfilling, and most difficult, part of creating their individual personalities is expressing in them emotions I have already experienced—the latest example being Perce (pronounced Pur-see), the warrior macaw from Turtle Island.
Character identity is a central theme I have woven into the book, one that I am currently exploring through Perce. The same way I, as Josh, matured into Joshua, Perce must undergo a similar transformation before his full name, Perception, is revealed. His personal epiphany will lead him down an uncharted path and will effectively close out the final chapter, “Revelation,” binding together a story that I will soon be proud to call my first novel.
Like Perce, we all have our individual paths to follow—our individual races to run. My race began more than eight years ago when I came across the word “maven” in an online thesaurus. The discovery opened my mind to an amazing new world accessible by one very long and winding road that I continue to travel today. It has taken me much longer than I ever expected, but at least I know the finish line is in reach.
Follow me on Instagram at @Joshua_Maven or @HonchotheVan, on Twitter @MaventheRaven or Facebook at Facebook/TheLastImperial.
Postcards to Samuel
It's 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, July 31, 2024, and I'm trying something a little different with this post. Instead of my usual blog format, I compiled a series of postcards that I wrote to my 10-month-old son, Samuel, during a two-week road trip I recently took to the Great Lakes. I plan to give him these postcards, along with others from future trips, when he's older in hopes that they will inspire him to chase his own dreams, whatever those might be.
False Summit
It’s 12:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 30, 2023, and I’m lounging at the beach enjoying the white sands and green waters of Florida’s Emerald Coast. Today is my 40th birthday and a relaxing getaway is exactly what I needed after a two-week road trip out west, where I hiked the highest peaks of Colorado and Arizona. The reasoning behind my latest excursion was simple: if I’m going to be “over the hill,” then I might as well be standing on top of a mountain.
Recharged
It’s 2:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 16, 2022, and I’m resting inside Honcho—my van—at the Taos Ski Valley Resort after successfully hiking Wheeler Peak, New Mexico’s highest point. I made the long drive west for a much-needed mental health getaway in nature. That, and it was a good excuse for me to test a new house battery I had installed the week before. Needless to say, my lungs and legs are physically exhausted after my 13,000-foot climb this morning, but the satisfaction that comes from summiting another mountain is just the feeling I was looking for.
