just an e-mail I got but, it just floored me.
I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.
read this then watch the video, it's truly moving.
(I don't know what's up with the comments on that page...they seem to be related to another topic...??)
The Strongest Dad in the World
Rick Reilly, Sports Illustrated
I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for
their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. But compared with
Dick Hoyt, I suck.
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 buzz kill 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."


See the video:

http://www.youtube.com/wa...4B-r8KJhlE

thanks for this. it puts things in perspective

Rick has a nice touch when writing such stories...I've read his stuff before and it truly moves you.

Thanks for sharing.

glad you 2 enjoyed it.

disappointed it didn't touch more souls

I can't open the vid...is it the episode from HBOs Real Sports? That was the first time I'd heard about the Hoyts and it moved me to tears...it definitely puts things in perspective.....with me always being deployed here or there, I don't get to spend a lot of time with my wife and kids....so making the most of the time I do have is always a challenge, but worthy of the effort.....

Oh my God. What a lovely story!!! You got me teary eyed at work.

M

reneGade20 said:

I'm not sure if it's an episode or what it is. It's set to music...and it basically show's the son when he was little, then growing up, they show him with his cap and gown and with his dad participating in all the races..
it starts with the son typing the letter C and ends with the word CAN.
but yeah...it just really puts things in perspective.

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

I know huh? I was sitting at my desk yesterday trying not to just start blubbering! so touching!

Shorty said:

if its set to music its probably as moving and powerful as the Real Sports episode....in that one, the father repeatedly breaks down in tears talking about his son's strength and how it inspires him to keep going during the races...after I finished watching it, I took my teenaged son out of the house and we just threw a football around at the park....he was giving me the look the whole time, but we had fun....

reneGade20 said:

ohh... yikes...to see the dad cry must be rough! this one has no words...just the music, and the text provided in the e-mail.
@ the look. cool you took him out and you guys had fun do it again dad!

We have the original article that was taken from hanging in our break room at work. It's an amazing story.

Shorty said:

Oh my God. I just watched 2 of the videos. Forget it. I'm bawling. I'm so inspired by them. It's so sad that it takes something so tragic to really make me view my life differently. It's cliche but I really think this thread is going to change my life.


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

oh my gosh! I know this thread has nothing to do with me but ...I'm touch that this thread could possibly move you that much! I'm so glad I posted it when I almost didn't.
I saw that man with his son...and I just knew that if that was my son....I would do that for him....it's just so inspiring!

Shorty said:

Part of the reason that it touched was because my father and I are close but he's not affectionate. I know that he would do everything for me and always has. I wish my dad and I could find something in common so that we could have more fun together whenever he comes down.
Amazing story!
M

Shorty said:

yeah it was rough for me because my son was slow (by the book standards) to develop his social skills and was erroneously diagnosed with autism, then with Asperger's Syndrome (which is a higher functioning form of autism), and gradually over the years with ADHD/ADD....so to the casual observer he seems quirky...and he's my kid so I can admit that he does have his quirks...but he responds well to challenges and its as if anytime someone says he can't do something, he buckles down and kicks ass....

long story short when I saw that segment on Real Sports, all I could think about was all those doctors telling me that he and I would never do something as simple as playing pitch and catch....and now he's a very talented budding DJ, good looking (like his old man....) and just as nutty as any teen his age....I also know that I would do the same as Mr. Hoyt if my son (or daughter for that matter) needed me too.....

and every time I click on this thread, I read the story....it is inspirational...so good looking out for starting the thread...a lot of people will benefit from this.....