Amanda has always been a runner. And by always, it means she was the kid in elementary school who loved running ‘the mile.’ The activity that most kids loathed – where at her school they chanted “we hate the mile” while they ran it, meanwhile she was loving it. To the point that when a kiddo had to do a makeup run due to absence, she volunteered to run it with them. And she was fast…her mile time pre-breast cancer was 4:59. Y’all…that’s fast! She has always loved it – to her running is a freeing feeling. Doing something under your own power.
Not only that, she was (is) a competitive gymnast and cross fitter. This was not a person, healthy and fit as she was, who was considered at risk for cancer, let alone an aggressive breast cancer.
One of the things Amanda wants to make clear to anyone reading this:
It is only because of a minor cancer scare that she went in for a ‘women’s wellness’ check which is where it was discovered. She was going to cancel the appointment but opted not to. It was there that her doctor discovered a lump. Which, because of her age, she would never have been able to get a mammogram for. They had to go to bat for her to make sure she was screened. Given the aggressiveness of her type of cancer, it was literally lifesaving they found it when they did. If you take nothing else from Amanda’s story, it’s don’t let the opportunity for a health checkup pass you by.
Amanda didn’t fit the profile of breast cancer patient (does anyone?), a super fit young person, but nonetheless she was adversely affected. She spent a year in treatment, five months of chemo, lost all of her hair, often so weak from treatment she’d be in wheelchair and nearly died during treatment. Surgeries, radiation, chemo. And every time she was in the chemo chair, she couldn’t wait to be able to do things again. She would visualize cross fit, gymnastics, being able to run. She would plan her weeks out: not many steps now, but next week I’ll walk around the block. And the week after that I will run a mile. The idea was to slowly rebuild the parts of her body damaged by chemo.
And she did just that, much to the horror of some of her doctors who wanted her to live in a bubble, that she shouldn’t ever run again. Go get some 1 to 2 lbs weights and be content with that.
Not Amanda. Nope. She started back to running in 2021, doing 10ks and 8ks and 5ks. Her first half back was our Run Malibu in 2022. She even started back with competitive gymnastics and cross fit and weightlifting competitions in 2023.
Given the type of Amanda’s cancer, she’ll be in maintenance treatment for life. She has labs and oncology appointments every three months. It’s a constant reminder of what can happen. There will be more scans. There will always be a scare. In fact, just days before this year’s 2024 Napa to Sonoma 5k and half marathon combo that she ran, she had a biopsy that made her doctors nervous. And she ran anyway, with the uncertainty. And that’s not the first time – in February 2023 she ran just one day after a double biopsy (with permission from her doctor) that left her still bandaged while running the marathon. She doesn’t focus on what could happen, she focuses on the now. Learn how to work through it, not stop your life for it.
One thing Amanda is clear about, is the ability to compartmentalize these kinds of scares. This is the life of someone with the challenge of a difficult health diagnosis. “Every day is a gift and I make the most of it.” You learn how to honor your body; you learn the balance of pushing and pulling back. You learn how to keep going in a sustainable way for what limitations you have.
Amanda is loving the Golden State Challenge this year. She says there’s a journey with the longer runs, an ability to take in the scenery, maybe even get lost in Santa Barbara and Sonoma and places like that a little bit. Each mile she completes is a mile forwar
