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Just got this email and even though it's not baseball related, all I can say is WOW.

The Strongest Dad in the World: Dick Hoyt.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in
marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a
wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and
pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back
mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes
taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was
strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged
and unable to control his limbs.

``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told
him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an
institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes
followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the
engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was
anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was
told. ``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a
lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by
touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to
communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school
classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a
charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran
more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he
tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore
for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were
running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving
Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly
shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a
single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a
few years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway,
then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983 they
ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston
the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he
was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still,
Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour
Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud
getting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't you
think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says.
Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick
with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston
Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best
time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world
record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens
to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at
the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the
Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a
mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his
arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,''
one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in
Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland,
Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the
country and compete in some backbreaking race every > weekend,
including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants
to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the
chair and I push him once.''

Here's the video....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg
______________ [b][i]"If you can read this, thank a teacher, and since it's in English, thank a soldier !!"[/b][/i]
Original Post

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quote:
when we were
running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''


Frank, this is so touching! I'm sitting at my desk with tears in my eyes.

What a beautiful story demonstrating the power of love. Love can make us strong on the outside, but more importantly will open our hearts to things we thought not possible. What a blessed parent and child! Thanks for sharing.

Now I need to get my face cleaned up!
Hard to type this while I'm sobbing.

This has to be one of the best, most moving posts I have ever read on this site or any other. Most of us have put some time and effort into helping our kids chase their dreams over the past few years. I am just humbled by what this Dad has done to give his son a chance for joy and to out-run the confines of his mortal body.

Don't miss the video, but find some kleenex first.

Julie
Frank,
I got to watch them 2 years ago when they competed in the Ironman Triathlon in Kona Hawaii. Think of this: a 2 mile swim, followed by 120 mile bike ride and a marathon conclusion, and they were trying to finish in under 18 hours. They were riding and running into 40 plus mile per hour headwinds for much of the bike and run. There isn't a story powerful enough to fully capture the feelings when I was watching them. That is a relationship that leaves you without the words to describe it. You feel it very intensely in your heart and with a lump in the throat...a lot like the feelings when you read Rick's one wish at the end of the article. Many thanks for posting.
Frank ...

Okay, two times in two days and I still read it here. What an inspiration to us all when it feels like the world is against us ... what a beautiful story of fatherly love. The father definitely exemplifies unconditional love, something that is available to all of us if we just look.

Thanks for sharing this ... I have passed it along to many of my friends and loved ones as well.

Mary Ann

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