Soledad to Join Sanjay Gupta in Triathlon
O'BRIEN: This is a great song. This is a great song.</s>O'BRIEN: In the dorm room. Come on.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I used to sing this one.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes? Go ahead.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I was very tired.</s>O'BRIEN: New Edition.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- I think, hopefully, sexier voice now.</s>O'BRIEN: God, go away. You will have to tweet about that, don't you?</s>MARIA CARDONA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: -- we think this was a sexy voice.</s>O'BRIEN: That was a plea. That was a little bit of a pathetic plea.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I'm trying to get my governor of Illinois on.</s>O'BRIEN: Dodge Dart --</s>O'BRIEN: 40 miles to the gallon. Welcome back, everybody. I want to talk about "Fit Nation," which Sanjay does every single year. A little while ago, he and I talked about whether or not I should be part of this training in this triathlon. If you follow me on Twitter, you know that once-in-a-blue- moon I get on the treadmill and train for it.</s>DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.</s>O'BRIEN: Today is the challenge, right? You're kicking it off officially?</s>GUPTA: Yes, we're kicking it off. We're thinking of you, because we're delighted that --</s>O'BRIEN: You lie.</s>GUPTA: -- you're going to be able to join us for this triathlon. You're going to be doing a classic distance triathlon. I told you a little bit about this. We'll take you to Malibu in September. It's about a half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride, four-mile run. Got some training between now and then, but not nearly as bad as you think. It's funny, Soledad, because I was sort of kicked, I think, in some ways, dragging and screaming into this whole process as well. I remember I was on the plane and my producer called me, and literally I was on the phone, flight attendant telling me to turn the phone off. The producer said, will you agree to do this triathlon, I said, yes, sure, click.</s>O'BRIEN: Has it really? How has it changed your life? How do you fit in this training? I know it's only a four-mile run but you really have to run six miles to do a four-mile run after the bike and swim.</s>GUPTA: The run is the last part of the event so, even if you're a runner, it's often the most challenging. For me, change, obviously just health wise, it's been significant. I think counter intuitively, my time management skills have improved because I knew I had to fit this in every day. As a result, I became much more efficient at other things I had to get done. It's one of these things. Everyone responds to it differently. But you and I have been talking about these "Fit Nation" events for years now. For the last two years, we've had people who have never done triathlons.</s>O'BRIEN: You've got seven new people, right?</s>GUPTA: Yes. They all completed these triathlons. We swam in the Hudson River last year. You see one of our participants there. Her name is Adrian. And that's Denise. She was a softball player. Lost a leg. Had to be amputated as a result of an injury she had. We have people who are trying to quit smoking. We have a truck driver who's a minister, Jeff Dahler. He's a D.J. at an Atlanta radio station --</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, they're all -- you know what I'm thinking as I see their pictures? They're all going to beat me in this triathlon.</s>GUPTA: This is what you get to wear, by the way.</s>O'BRIEN: I get to wear that?</s>GUPTA: Your viewers, all the Soledad O'Brien viewers.</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, you know what, I'll be bringing up the rear in the triathlon. Yes, yes, yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're all going to be winners.</s>O'BRIEN: We're all winners at the end. Sanjay, I'm excited. You can follow us at cnn.com/fit nation. You can follow our progress for both me and Sanjay at CNN.com/fitnation, and also on Twitter because I tell everyone one, every time I have to work out, I complain about it and tweet about it. Also, this morning --</s>CARDONA: I like that. It encourages me.</s>O'BRIEN: It does?</s>O'BRIEN: Yes, join us.</s>CARDONA: Yes. Join us.</s>O'BRIEN: We are following two big breaking news stories this morning. The first, two Americans who have reportedly been kidnapped in Cairo. We have the very latest coming to you from Egypt straight ahead. Also developing overnight, Iran's supreme leader has a warning for the United States. This is as Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warns that Israel could strike Iran by spring. We're looking at all of these stories right after this commercial break.