An amputee's newest endeavor: triathlons

Rummaging through a laundry basket of clean clothing that needed to be folded, Pete Castelli had a predicament.

Sock after sock Castelli pulled from the basket - a black Nike one here, a white Hanes one there. He searched the pile but couldn't find any second socks to make a pair.

He recognized that they all belonged to his daughter, Denise.

"Can you get two socks in the laundry at the same time?'" he asked, frustrated.

"She looks at me and says, 'Dad, I only wear one.' "

Fortunately for the Castellis, a trivial issue such as a lonely sock is one of the few reminders that Denise is missing half her right leg.

It has been nearly four years since Denise's leg was amputated, and more than five since an awkward slide into second base during one of her final college softball games changed everything.

This weekend, Denise Castelli will compete in the TriRock Philadelphia Triathlon. The event - Denise's second triathlon - is just another reminder that there's little the 27-year-old amputee from Netcong, N.J. can't do despite her physical limitation.

"She's made it so easy for us just to forget the past and keep moving forward," Pete Castelli said. "And she moves at a lightning pace."

Lightning quick. That's the speed with which Denise played centerfield and ran the bases for Division II New Haven in softball.

"My feet were my biggest weapon," she said. "People always knew I was going to steal. It was just a matter of when."

As a senior in 2008, Denise was wrapping up a successful career and stressing about final exams. In a game on April 22, she took off from first and went hard into second.

She knew immediately that something was broken - both her fibula and tibia, it turned out. She underwent surgery the next day in which a metal rod was inserted through her shin bone. The procedure was deemed a success.

But months passed and Denise began to feel ill. For more than a year, Denise endured numerous exploratory surgeries to combat osteomyelitis, a painful infection of bone or bone marrow, that had spread in her leg.

In November 2009, the decision was made to go ahead with the amputation, just below the knee.

"The finality of losing my leg, it scared me like nothing else," Denise said. "But it also gave me closure."

Closure for Denise meant no more hospital trips, no more procedures, and no more pain.

A few months later, she was fitted for her first prosthetic. Learning to walk again took time. As Denise put it, "I was essentially a 24-year-old baby," but before long, she found herself timidly attending a one-day running and stability clinic hosted by the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF).

The clinic opened her eyes to a new realm of possibilities. She gained confidence and new friends with similar hardships and, helped by trainers and volunteers, ran for the first time since her last stolen-base attempt.

Afterward, Denise found a women's fast-pitch league in Milford, Conn. She homered in her first at-bat. There was no fence, so she ran it out.

With playing softball again tackled, Denise yearned for a new challenge. She applied to CNN's Fit Nation, a program that provides a small group with support and training to complete a triathlon. Denise was chosen along with six others, and after nine months of training, she completed the Nautica Malibu Triathlon last September.

She employed the help of friend and Paralympian Scout Bassett, a winner of CAF's Challenged Athlete of the Year Award. Bassett had lost her right leg as an infant in a chemical fire in China and was later adopted from an orphanage and moved to Michigan with her new family.

On Sunday, the two friends will complete the Olympic Distance Race in a relay format. Bassett will handle the 1.5-kilometer swimming portion, and Denise Castelli will complete the 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run.

Denise also will participate in Saturday's Spring Distance Race, handling the 25.3-kilometer bike segment.

Getting triathlon-ready for Denise means balancing a 9-5 job and local bowling and volleyball leagues with daily training. She concedes it can be difficult to find time. But as she eyes her first half-Ironman competition - a 113-kilometer solo triathlon - for later this year, there's little time to waste.

"Anything I did, I always wanted to do it well," she said. "My dad told me this right after my amputation. He said, 'Well, if you're going to be an amputee you're going to be the best amputee there is. That's just who you are.' "

Pete and his wife, Maria, will of course be in Fairmount Park this weekend to support Denise in her second triathlon. Pete still anticipates tears of pride to flow freely.

"I always have to turn my head and walk away. I'm always teary-eyed," Pete said. "Whether she's finishing a race or competing in it, we're very proud of her. She's really become my inspiration, my hero."