Joe Amabile Takes on His First Marathon After Serena Pitt Wedding (Exclusive)

Joe Amabile is ready to take on a new adventure following his luxurious Charleston wedding to Serena Pitt. After the Bachelor in Paradise couple tied the knot for the second time last month, Amabile is challenging himself to run his first marathon in support of fellow Bachelorette alum Zac Clark's Release Recovery rehab center, taking on the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon on Nov. 5. 

Amabile told PopCulture.com that his and Pitt's wedding week was "one of the best weeks of [their] lives" and "so much fun," as was their "beautiful" Italian honeymoon, but now that he's back in the States, he's getting down to crunch time with his marathon training. "It being my first marathon, I'll be upset if I don't break four hours," he shared of his finish aspirations. "My goal right now is in the threes. I definitely won't break three. ... But I would like to pace it around the eight-minute miles. But I don't know, I don't know how that will go."

Training with Release Recovery in mind adds a little pep to Amabile's step, especially as Clark was the one who convinced him to run his first marathon. "I've always run, but I would say my longer runs were always maybe three-and-a-half miles," Amabile told PopCulture. He recalled, "As the weather broke, I would run on the West Side Highway over here in New York, and I saw Zac Clark one morning. And he's like, 'Hey, if you ever want to run with me, let me know. I'm out here every morning.' So I met him one morning at 7 a.m., and we went for a run. He's like, 'You going to run the marathon?' I'm like, 'I don't think I am.' He's like, 'You should. You should try it out.' I'm like, 'I don't know. I don't even remember the last time I ran five miles.'"

Clark's offer became a "challenge in [his] mind," the Chicago native admitted, which led to him bumping up his mileage before fully embracing the marathon mindset. "[Clark] is a very convincing guy, and he did make it seem like, 'Yeah, you could do it, no problem,'" Amabile said. 

Even with marathon training at its peak, the Bachelor Happy Hour host has been making sure to stay up-to-date with Bachelor Nation, but he's not sure fans have seen a love connection like his and Pitt's take to the Bachelor in Paradise beach just yet. "I'm waiting because we haven't really seen any in-depth conversations amongst these couples yet. It all seems pretty platonic at the moment, so I don't know," he told PopCulture, adding that while Aaron B. and Eliza seem like the "strongest couple" so far, "you never know," especially so early in the season.

One show Amabile is sure of is The Golden Bachelor, which he called "very enjoyable" and "fun to watch." When it comes to a possible Golden Bachelorette or Golden Bachelor in Paradise spinoff, Amabile reasoned, "I think we should definitely get a Golden Bachelorette. I don't know if that will happen, but I think we definitely should. I think that would be great."