Hi, my name is Amanda Steffen, and I started running recently for many reasons, but mostly because it's been a therapeutic way to help guide me through the trenches of life and grief. It's helped me find purpose. To find self worth. To feel capable of hard and difficult things. Because life hasn't been the easiest over recent years and running has helped me align with goals where I find myself in pursuit of different outcomes and opportunities for greatness.

My why? I do this for Craig Steffen, my late father who we lost too early to cancer in 2022. Since losing him, I want nothing more than to be better. To do better. Losing him was a wake up call that we are all living on borrowed time and tomorrow is never promised. Putting off your goals is a fools MO and I refuse to accept that sort of life as my own.

As many of you reading this know, Craig was a special guy. He was the life of the party, the kindest and most charasmatic person you'd ever meet. He would make lifelong friends with complete strangers tailgating in parking lots. He loved big. He left behind so many people who adored him, myself included.

So that being said, in his memory and honor, I will be attempting to run my first marathon. Yes, the girl who barely finished the mile in high school gym class. Yes, the girl who spent her twenties either laying on a couch or sitting at a bar. That girl is now signed up and in training to run 26.2 miles for the BQ Mountains 2 Beach marathon in Ventura, CA on April 28th, 2024.

I am asking for your donations to help with travel expenses as well as raise money for MD Anderson Cancer Center where my father fought the good fight and received outstanding treatment.

Any donation you can give is greatly appreciated.

This race is for you dad. I love you. I miss you. Now let's cross that finish line <3