WEBVTT

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- Oh goodness, when people ask me the question

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of how do I describe myself it's like

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how do you see me?

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- [Woman] Very special, very athletic, very intellectual.

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- [Man] I knew right away that he had a measure

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of respect for individuals, focused, super goal oriented.

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- [Woman] Bold, courageous.

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- I'm a nerd.

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(inspirational music)

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(rolling film)

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One thing that I love about cycling is

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it's like a sense of freedom.

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Every time that I go into my strava

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and I look at my progression, that's like yeah,

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it's like my natural high type thing.

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I am a cyclist and track, no field competitor for Team Army.

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Yet in high school I did wrestling but I was terrible.

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I was one of the geeky skinny kids

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^that just got beat and I joined

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^the wrestling team just to not get bullied or something.

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But I was a robotics type of guy,

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I was the president of the robotics team.

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That's what I did in high school

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so I never really consider myself an athlete before now.

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- As a kid I knew he was going to be special

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because he used to hide in my cabinets

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and beat on the pots and pans but always with a rhythm.

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So and he's a self taught musician

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^and just always been very bright, daring, that's him.

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- I've been in the Army reserves

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for nine years collectively, I'm an engineer,

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heavy equipment engineer and I'm an Earth mover.

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During the mobilization for operation enduring freedom

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I was increasingly sick, I couldn't hold

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my food down and I was dropping weight really fast

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and that's how I found out I had Grave's disease.

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I got into cycling when I was transferred to the WTB.

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I met the Adapta sports coordinator for Fort Bliss, WTB,

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and when he saw me he said you look fit, you should cycle.

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I said no I don't like bikes.

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But I finally gave up because I was all depressed

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that I couldn't walk across the room

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without being winded and I just said okay

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fit me on the bike and we'll see what happens.

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Started at ten miles, I was like uh uh

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I don't want to do this because this is too much.

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But then he said keep at it you'll get good I promise.

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And it went from there, now I'm competing

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for Team Army at the warrior games, it's crazy.

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Well one thing that the army provided me

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with as far as overcoming things such as

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Grave's disease was resiliency,

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like that skill set, you can't do without it

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because it allows you to focus on logic instead of emotion.

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- The challenge of being resilient is not just physical,

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^it's mental as well, it's psychological.

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^You have to build up your inner self

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^and Sgt. Pitts has demonstrated that

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by you know taking on other activities,

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finding mental stimulations,

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that has helped him become resilient.

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- I really appreciate the army actually

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shining light on resiliency and making it important

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to where I could have the skill sets mentally

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and mental agility to get through

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what I'm going through right now.

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(soft piano music)

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I do want to go pro level but I was kind of

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like stumped on by a pro cyclist he said you're kinda old

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but that's not gonna stop me, I will try my best.

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(cheering)

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- I think a gold medal will fit nicely

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around Sgt. Pitt's neck.

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Again the Sgt. Pitts I believe has the qualities

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to reach the Olympics and I am expecting

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nothing less than his best effort.

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- But sky is the limit and even beyond.

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- But in one word I see myself as conqueror

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because I could be in a worse predicament

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and I decided to capitalize on my capabilities

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and because of that I'm able to do today

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so I look at myself as a conqueror, yeah.

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(inspirational music)