Promoting Healthy Behavior Transcript

Promoting Healthy Behavior Transcript
SCI/162 Version 8 / 1

Promoting Healthy Behavior Transcript

Characters:Sarah Reinertsen (Athlete), Solveigh Fuentes (mother), Paddy Rossbach (Amputee Coalition of America), Ted Koppel (ABC News), Interviewer, Roch Frey (swim coach), Paul Huddle (coach), & Emcee

SarahIn a unique "20/20" experiment, two families have volunteered to change their diets and their exercise regimes to try and lose weight forever. They're working with Olympians Paul and Morgan Hamm and their trainer, Miles Avery, who's designed personal exercise regimes for both families. They'll be doing intensive, hour-long workouts, three times every week. Like 50 percent of Americans, our families haven't been doing enough exercise to gain any lasting benefits. That's all about to change.

Solveigh It was pretty devastating because, you know, you just don’t think it’s going to happen to you when you have a child. And so, we had to meet with some doctors. They told us that, hey, we’re going to have to amputate, fuse the knee, take away the knee, fuse the bones together and then she’ll wear a prosthesis. So, by seven years old, she was wearing what they call a bending leg.

SarahI was eight years old at the time, seven, eight years old. And it was after my surgery, and my dad signed me up for this one-mile fun run. And my brother and I went. We raced in it. And I came in dead last. I hated that.

SolveighShe did come kind of in last. But she did it. That’s the, the whole key is that she didn’t -she didn’t give up.

Sarah I wanted to be athletic. But I didn’t really have the strength or the prosthetics to be athletic. I was always the last kid picked for kick ball, you know. I was the weak link. I couldn’t kick the ball as hard. I couldn’t run the bases that fast, as fast. So, I was lucky to make it to first base.

SolveighOne day she said to me, she says, mom, why do I have to wear this leg all the time? I hate it, I hate it. And there was a time when she was about eight, maybe nine. And I said to her, I said, you know, your dad has to wear glasses. I said, and if he didn’t wear his glasses, he wouldn’t be able to see where he was going. He couldn’t drive. I said, Sarah, yours is the same thing, if you don’t put your leg on, you don’t wear your leg, you’re not going to be able to function and move around like everybody else.

Sarah So I just sort of went along and, and did enough to get by. But it wasn’t until I was 11 years old when I met a woman named Paddy Rossbach, who is an amputee runner, that I realized that maybe I could be an athlete.

PaddyWell, first of all, you have to imagine a little girl with legs that were like two sticks of spaghetti. And this blonde – and at that time it was sort of curly-ish mop of hair. She had this sort of adult affect in this tiny, little -little girl who’d come out to – for this fundraising race. And she was wearing -I have to say, she was wearing really the most prehistoric prosthesis, which so many people were given and still probably are. But she was trying to do absolutely everything with it. And she was – she was doing a remarkable job.

SarahMeeting Paddy and just by having a role model like that, that opened up the possibility in my life. That’s when -that was that, you know, Eureka moment, like, wow, okay, if she can be a runner, maybe I can be a runner. And it changed my life. Deciding to run and pouring my heart and soul into athletics was really about having a dream. I started at the age of 11, running 100 meters. But at the age of 20, 21, ten years later, I ran my first marathon. And, yeah, I wasn’t first but I definitely wasn’t last. And, you know, I worked many years to become a stronger runner. And for me, it was about setting a new goal for myself.

I didn’t just roll out of bed and decide to do Ironman. I tell people I’ve been training for Ironman my whole life. Because I really see it as a progression. Maybe I’m that same seven-year-old girl that just doesn’t want to be last in the race, but still wants to be in the race. It’s what I think about when I train. I think about that moment of crossing that finish line. It’s going to be worth it. It is the fear of Ironman that gets me up out of bed at 5:00 in the morning to get that workout. You can’t fake an Ironman. You have to put in the training.

The way you fit it in is you get less sleep. You just got to get up earlier. You know, you got to get your first workout in before you get to the office. You’ve got to get your second workout in after you leave the office. I knew what I had to do. And so, getting into Ironman there are a lot of steps I needed to take. I knew I had the running down. I could do the running. It was the swimming and the biking that I really needed to do a lot of work.

One thing I am a little shy about is taking my leg off in front of people. And in the early days. Now, I’m better about it. Without my leg on, I really feel disabled. I think it shows my vulnerability. I’m hopping. I’m really unstable on it. I am really vulnerable without my leg on. A lot of times in this journey, this Ironman journey, I have been afraid. Scared. Swimming in the ocean with the waves, getting on a bike at the age of 28, falling on the bike. Having to pick myself back up. I mean, there have been so many times when I have wanted to not do it because I’ve been so scared or so unsure. And one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in this is that you can feel fear, you can feel scared but you can’t let it stop you. You know, that even when you’re afraid, even when you’re scared, do it anyway, you know. And you’re never going to know what you can do if you don’t take risks. The thing is, I have to finish what I started. You know, I have to -I can’t walk away from this knowing I only went so far. I have unfinished business in Kona.

TedSarah is setting her sights on this year’s Ironman. When we come back.

Sarah Sometimes I see people and I’m like, what a waste of two legs. You know, what a waste. You have it and you don’t even use it.

[Commercial break]

Sarah In preparation for the Ironman, I signed up for the Honu half-iron. And it’s held in Kona, on the same course that they use for the world championship Ironman. And so I signed up for that this year. I went to have a really tough experience. Makes you stronger.

I don’t want to spend energy being nervous. I’d rather just save that energy for the bike and the run. So, I am pretty calm.

The race does have a cutoff. You have to finish the course by -in eight hours. In order to qualify for the Ironman world championships, I needed to do that race in under eight hours to verify my slot. I think it was one of the things for me it was like, people didn’t expect me to run. And it is the greatest irony. A girl with one leg becomes a runner. A girl with one leg becomes an Ironman. And I just think that, yeah, you know, when you look at all the things that people have I think, what is their excuse? You know, if you’ve all limbs intact, what is your excuse? You can do this, you know. And quite frankly, it’s easier for you.

InterviewerHow are you doing?

Sarah I’m doing good. There’s wind. And I think they’re going to be strong. But I think I’m tough enough.

I get lazy, too. You know, I’m not -I’m not going to say I’m above that. I enjoy sitting on my couch watching movies, eating Ben & Jerry’s. You know, that’s okay. That’s natural to want to do that. But also, I sometimes do look at people – I mean, I’m not going to lie. I do sometimes -sometimes I see people and I’m like, what a waste of two legs, you know. What a waste. You have it and you don’t even use it, you know. But I can’t get in that place of anger. I just kind of think it’s their loss.

I spend a lot of the times people passing me. And sometimes I do get frustrated. I just sort of think, if I had two legs, you know, I’d kick your butt on this hill. So, sometimes I do, often, think about, you know, what kind of athlete would I be if I had two legs? Would I be a professional tri-athlete? You know, would I be an Olympian instead of a Para-Olympian if I had two legs? I don’t know. But I also think that in my life experience, I don’t know if I would have the same drive, focus, or desire. I think a lot of that desire comes from a place of not having.

Roch Sarah definitely stands out. Just her positive energy. She’s going for it. She’s not letting anything stop her.

PaulBecause she is such an inspiration, such a great personality, it’s impossible not to love her. Here’s somebody who has one leg and is doing all this stuff. And that’s got to be extremely empowering.

EmceeNumber 777. All right, girl.

Paddy She’s my role model now because she has gone on and taken what she’s doing in the athletic world far further. And, and has accomplished things that I can just only just marvel at now.

Sarah It’s an amazing feeling. It’s like you -you almost feel like -you almost float there. And all the hard work, that’s the payoff. I mean, that’s what keeps you going in the training. That’s what keeps you going in the race is for that, you know, that three seconds across the finish line makes it all worth it.

I’m glad that’s done. It’s not all triumph. I’m at a point in my life. I’m 30 years old. And I’ve gone through a lot of crap. You know, being the girl that no one would ask to the prom because I was different. Not always feeling comfortable in my body. Not being able to wear what was hip and fashionable. And being uncomfortable in my skin. I think sports has helped me get through that. But it, it certainly has been a journey. And it continues. We all don’t have to, you know, have ten perfect toes and ten perfect fingers and – you know, perhaps what makes us different is really what makes us beautiful.

TedSarah Reinertsen, when she graced that cover of “Runner’s World” magazine last December, it became the most-requested in the magazine’s 39-year history.

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