I barely knew it was possible for above-knee amputees to run before I saw her on the cover of the December Runner's World at my store. I certainly had no idea we could run this well.
Sarah doesn't just run. She competes with "ordinary" people in triathlons, like the Ironman Challenge in Hawaii. She thrills me (though I frankly covet the fit of her socket). Seeing her on that magazine cover made me start teaching myself to run again, not competitively or anything 'cause that's never been my bag, but, you know, just well enough to chase the neighbor's dog back into her yard if she gets loose or to escape danger if I ever encounter any. (Hey, don't laugh! It could happen! Or maybe I'll drop a bagel sometime and have to catch it before it rolls away. Okay, I admit it; that really is more likely.)
I've been practicing with the shopping carts at work, using them as sort of wheeled walkers -er- "runners," I guess, to support me while I got used to going faster and faster. (And it worked pretty well except when my fake foot kept hitting one of the wheels instead of the ground...but that happens when I shop, too.) Yesterday, even though I looked like a total dork doing it, I even started trying without anything to hold me up at all. My prosthetic is too short, I don't have a spring-like fake foot, and I am not innately graceful, so it will be awhile before my pitiful hopping and flapping resembles actual running, but hey, it's a start, and I owe it all to Sarah Reinertsen.
By the way, while you're there, you might as well check out the Össur site if you never have. I don't have any Össur equipment, but while researching my options prior to amputation, theirs was almost the first site I came upon, and that month the cover story was about a woman who'd climbed a mountain using a foot of theirs. The picture on the home page of the website was of that woman, just about my age, I think, standing on top of that mountain in shorts and her prosthetic limb, facing away from the camera and off into a gorgeous vista. That picture alone, with all the promise it implied, was enough to make me strong enough to go forward, get more information, and even go through with my surgery, which I'd sworn to two surgeons just hours before that I'd rather die than undergo.
And if you need another boost, try this place: Challenged Athletes Foundation. The kid on the home page right now, eight-year-old Rudy Garcia Tolson, won gold in the 2004 Paralympics running on two above-knee prosthetic legs. His motto? "A brave heart is a powerful weapon.”
You said it, kid. Rock on.
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