Miles of Friendship - Amanda

I’ve mentioned more than once, here in my little corner of the internet, that I have one heck of a support system. Somehow, I’ve managed to fall into a group of friends who believe not only in me but in each other. Today’s post is about one friend in particular. Amanda and I have known each other since our first year of college.

Here we are, in 2007, taking a ‘selfie’ before the kids had a name for it.

Even in the college dining hall, this girl was a healthy eater and a gym goer. A couple years ago, she trained for and completed her first 5k. When I started to lose a few pounds and set some running goals, Amanda always cheered me on. In more recent months, she is a major supporter of my blog and accompanying Facebook page and is always ready to talk healthy eating and exercise with me. We find ourselves on quite a few road trips together, so it’s been our topic of conversation as of late. You may recall a recent post, where in my quest to spread my love of health and fitness, I gathered a group to train for and complete a half marathon together. Amanda was the first person to sign up and she is so pumped to become a half marathoner.

This past Saturday, a few of us friends had plans to go to a beach for the day. I had completely forgotten that we went to the same beach last year the second weekend in July and we arrived just after a five mile race. Somehow, this year our planned beach day landed on the same weekend and a few weeks ago, Amanda sent me a text message reminding me of that five mile run in Belmar and asking if I was interested. Of course! A day of my favorite things: running, the beach, and catching up with dear friends. We set out early Saturday morning to arrive in Belmar, NJ in plenty of time for the 8:30 start time. A little nervous after completing a 5k earlier in the week that she wasn’t terribly happy with, we both lined up at the start of an already hot morning. ANNNNDDD she did AWESOME!!! I knew she would but I was so excited at the end when she said she couldn’t wait for October’s half marathon.

I’m so thankful for her friendship and her taking the time to read my blog, retweet, repost, repin, share, and tell people about my recipes. Look for more from Amanda because she is going to completely rock the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia this year and I secretly think she has her sights on a marathon :)

It was great to someone to take a medal pic with me!