Mother of 4 dies at marathon finish line
COLUMBIA, S.C. — A community is mourning the loss of a 32-year-old mother who died after running a half marathon here over the weekend.
Amanda Peake Glover signed up for the Palmetto Half Marathon in Columbia. Moments after completing the race Saturday, she collapsed and died.
"She's one of those people you would laugh until you cried with," said her friend, Ashley Blocker. "She's hilarious, she just lived out loud with everything."
A month earlier, she ran a full marathon with her brother, Josh Peake. He said they crossed the finish line holding hands.
"It hasn't completely hit me yet," said Peake. "I feel like i'm going to wake up from a dream. She ran the race of life. And when she crossed that finish line and passed away she crossed into eternity in heaven. And I do have that to lean back on."
Glover co-owned Fitness 535 in Columbia where she quickly befriended Blocker.
Blocker said when she heard about her friend's tragic death, she immediately thought of Glover's four young kids and her husband, Benji.
"He was four minutes behind her," she said. "I'm sure he thought well I'll catch up with her at the finish line and she'll gloat about how she beat me and we'll go about our day, you know. It makes you hold people a little bit tighter and not take things for granted. You don't want to say I'll do it tomorrow, or I'll tell them I love them later. You want to do it today."
It is a lesson Blocker said she will pass on to her son, now three weeks old.
"I watched her mother her four (children), and if I'm half the mother she was, then I'll be doing a really good job," Blocker said.
Peake is focused on remembering his sister, and passing those memories on to her children.
"She was the center of attention when she walked into a room," he said. "Her smile was huge and bright, and it would light up the room whenever she walked in. Life is a race and a journey in general. And not only in a worldly sense but a spiritual sense. Life is a race and you are told to train for the race and to run it well in scripture, and Amanda definitely did that."
The cause of death has not been determined.