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08-22-2006, 11:44 AM | #1 |
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Strongest Father in the World
[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]
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 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 would sit in the chair and I would push him once.'' Here's the video.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPrL3n63yg |
08-22-2006, 12:10 PM | #2 |
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Wow!!!
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08-22-2006, 12:25 PM | #3 |
Stupid should hurt
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Port Orange, FL
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
That man is a true hero of the highest selflessness. I'm teared up it is so awsomely cool.
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Mike A HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL REMAIN IN PLACE,
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08-22-2006, 12:45 PM | #4 |
Ocean Hitchhiker
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Sarasota Florida
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Speechless.....
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08-22-2006, 01:29 PM | #5 |
Urban Dive Trash
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Hope all of it's true, because that is just amazing. It's awesome to hear about people that don't give up on their family when they need you the most.
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08-22-2006, 01:34 PM | #6 |
Matt Head
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Graveyard of the Atlantic
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
The cynics don't have to bother with the SNOPES BS. I saw these guys at the IM Kona. Very much the real deal!
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08-22-2006, 01:35 PM | #7 |
Senior Member
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Amazing.
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08-22-2006, 02:19 PM | #8 |
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Sent it to my dad and brother. Great story!
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08-22-2006, 02:34 PM | #9 |
Marine Biologist Geek
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Bahrain
Age: 41
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
that is fantastic!
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Professional Sunbather, Official Boat Decoration , & now spearfisher(wo)man Taught to dive and spear by my husband Jeff "Keezdiver" Simonds. He will always be the voice in my head on my dives. 4-24-78~2-18-10 |
08-22-2006, 02:41 PM | #10 |
PELAGIC POKER!!!!
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
I don't even have kids. That is just amazing. Wish our world had more people like this.
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08-22-2006, 02:43 PM | #11 |
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Location: Middle Tennessee
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Dang, I hate tearing up on a Tuesday afternoon.... Makes you feel good knowing there are still amazing people in the world who love their kids that much..I just don't have the right words....
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Jim |
08-22-2006, 02:47 PM | #12 |
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
I too was teared up watching that video. I could only hope to have that much courage if anything ever hapened to my child.
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08-22-2006, 03:19 PM | #13 |
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
I didn't tear up, I flat out cried.....They've run this story several times on the Bryant Gumbel show on HBO (Inside Sports?). What trust!! Just incredible..
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08-22-2006, 05:37 PM | #14 |
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
Wow, That's awesome! A true hero
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08-22-2006, 07:12 PM | #15 |
MY SON AND I.
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Location: Bradenton,FL.
Posts: 218
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Re: Strongest Father in the World
That definitely tugs at thee ole heart strings. That guy is a HERO in my book!!
Steve
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