Hi everyone! My name is Amanda! After several years living in Washington, DC, I recently moved to beautiful Southern California. I’m lucky enough to have two amazing big sisters (Melanie and Christine) who run races with me multiple times a year. These mostly take place in Disney World or Disneyland because we LOVE magic and happiness. RunDisney has been a huge blessing in my life. These races help me stay active and healthy, but most importantly they make me feel closer to my sisters. Since we started doing runDisney races together several years ago, we see each other more often, we talk on the phone almost everyday, and we get to celebrate each other at every finish line.

I get to use these cool bright green drum sticks to teach POUND – a workout inspired by drumming. 🙂

Outside of my runDisney life, I’ve worked as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor for almost a decade. In 2017, I opened my own company called Soul Lift to help people improve their health, nutrition and fitness. I also teach classes like Barre, Zumba and POUND. A couple years ago, I was selected to be a Master Instructor for POUND, which means I get to travel all over the country training new instructors.

Since my main expertise is fitness (I’m getting better at crafts and costume making but Melanie and Christine are the real experts in that), I hope to offer as many tips as I can to help with race training and staying strong and healthy as a long distance runner! I hope we can all still be running races in Disney World when we’re in our 70s!!

Main benefit to having a childhood filled with gymnastics classes: adulthood handstands on the beach.

So what is it about running that keeps me signing up for races? I’ve been active my entire life. My childhood was filled with gymnastics competitions, figure skating competitions, cheerleading and just general hyperactivity. Then, I grew up, went to graduate school, studied a lot and stopped moving. I loved my graduate program, but during this time I became very unhealthy and fell into a deep depression. Unfortunately, my depression went untreated for a couple years and resulted in a suicide attempt.

That’s when I started running. I found that the only time I felt sane was when I was moving. I didn’t want to stop moving and I didn’t want to lose that feeling, so I ran 2 miles, then 3 miles, then 4 miles, then in 2011 I ran my first half marathon with my big sister Christine. For all of you who have completed a race, you don’t even need me to describe the feeling I had at that finish line. For those of you who haven’t, here it is: sheer bliss. I run because it makes me love to be alive. Getting to share that experience with my sisters is just the cherry on top of the cake.

-Amanda

The feeling you get at your first finish line.