Amputee discovers passion for running

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This article was published 21/06/2015 (3789 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While Sandi Reimer has been running from adversity since the day she was born, Sunday marked her 36th career race.

The 2015 Super Run at the 37th Manitoba Marathon will be one of 100 races she plans to complete before she turns 50.

Sandi is 42. She has one leg, two crutches and a lot of heart.

“I feel like I’ve been given a gift — to be able to move, to be able to do things even with a disability,” Reimer said after the Super Run.

Barely out of breath, Reimer said her heart rate normally goes up twice as fast as that of an able-bodied runner because of the extra strength and endurance it takes to push herself on crutches.

“Every single time I finish a race, I feel like I’ve conquered something huge. It’s just another personal victory,” she said.

Reimer’s right leg was amputated two days after she was born and she felt like an outcast in her family because of the physical difference. Her parents were physically and verbally abusive towards her throughout her childhood and at 14, she was sent to her first foster home.

There was a silver lining to being sent away, however. Reimer no longer had to wear a prosthetic leg.

“I was forced to wear a prosthetic leg because it would look cosmetically normal and my family didn’t want me to look like I had one leg,” she said. “But every step I took, there was always a lot of pain from the prosthetic.”

“I said to (the foster family), ‘Are you going to make me wear this thing, too? Because I hate it and I don’t want to do it…’

“(They said) ‘You never have to wear it again if you don’t want to.’”

Once she’d gotten rid of the prosthetic, Reimer felt like she was actually able to move. She vividly remembers the first time she sprinted — across the classroom in high school, to talk to a friend.

After her classmates saw her run, they never let her sit on the sidelines again.

Before then, Reimer’s parents and physical education teacher had told her she had to sit out and not do sports or gym class because she had one leg.

In June 2012, Reimer discovered a passion for five-kilometre races. To date, the longest distance she’s run is six kilometres. Sunday’s Super Run was about 4.1 kilometres.

She also runs in the wintertime. Her two coldest races bottomed out around -42 C with wind chill.

“For me, there always has to be the goal beyond the goal. Once I conquer this goal, how can I up it? How can I ramp it up? Because there’s got to be more that I can do with this,” she said.

Reimer credits the running community with having helped her make it so far.

“I so much appreciate all of the racers. They feel a lot like family to me. When I’m doing the race with them, their encouragement, cheering me on — we’re getting to kind of encourage each other. You know what? It makes the race,” she said.

The inspiration is mutual, says one new fan who met Reimer on Sunday.

Jackie Watts approached her after the race to offer congratulations.

“I’ve never seen her run before. My family is just recreational runners and they did the 10K for the first time today. As I was waiting for them to come in, she ran in and I had tears in my eyes,” Watts said. “She’s such an inspiration to everybody.”

jessica.botelho-urbanski@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @_jessbu