OT: Father of the Year, This is a really amazing story! |
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OT: Father of the Year, This is a really amazing story! |
LuckieO |
Sep 24 2006, 08:03 PM
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#1
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Series9's future ex-wife... Group: Members Posts: 173 Joined: 27-April 05 From: Rio Rancho, NM Member No.: 3,989 |
The following was sent to me in an e-mail. I am sure some of you have already seen this, but I thought the story was really amazing and wanted to share it with those of you who have not.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Amazing and inspiring father and son... The story is good, but the video is a "must see".!! Please read story first...puts the whole story into perspective... 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 Hoyt's 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.... If you can not just click on this link, just retype it and go there. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ |
KaptKaos |
Sep 24 2006, 09:57 PM
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#2
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Family Group: Members Posts: 4,009 Joined: 23-April 03 From: Near Wausau Member No.: 607 Region Association: Upper MidWest |
Just wow!
Thanks for sharing that. |
bernbomb914 |
Sep 24 2006, 10:07 PM
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#3
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one of the oldest Farts on this board Group: Benefactors Posts: 1,873 Joined: 29-December 02 From: Temecula, CA Member No.: 36 |
Its enough to make you cry.
Bernie |
MrKona |
Sep 24 2006, 10:26 PM
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#4
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 597 Joined: 25-July 05 From: Santa Rosa, CA Member No.: 4,469 Region Association: None |
About 7-8 years ago, I was running a 10-k road race in Massachusetts, and the Hoyts caught up to, and went cruising by me. It was pretty impressive...
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dlo914 |
Sep 24 2006, 11:59 PM
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#5
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Whatchu' lookin' at?!?! Group: Members Posts: 3,432 Joined: 6-September 04 From: San Gabriel, CA Member No.: 2,697 |
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Leo Imperial |
Sep 25 2006, 12:26 AM
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#6
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Do you have to use so many cuss words? Group: Members Posts: 906 Joined: 29-November 04 From: 914 Roadshow - Glen Cove NY Member No.: 3,192 Region Association: None |
Thanks Lauren.
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ptravnic |
Sep 25 2006, 05:44 AM
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#7
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1,231 Joined: 27-May 03 From: Chicago, IL Member No.: 747 Region Association: None |
Damn, had me teary eyed sitting @ work...
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VaccaRabite |
Sep 25 2006, 07:22 AM
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#8
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En Garde! Group: Admin Posts: 13,465 Joined: 15-December 03 From: Dallastown, PA Member No.: 1,435 Region Association: MidAtlantic Region |
I saw that a little while ago, and got a bit misty during lunch.
Zach |
Eric_Shea |
Sep 25 2006, 10:16 AM
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#9
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PMB Performance Group: Admin Posts: 19,278 Joined: 3-September 03 From: Salt Lake City, UT Member No.: 1,110 Region Association: Rocky Mountains |
Whenever you think you can't do something...
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jhadler |
Sep 25 2006, 11:06 AM
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#10
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Long term tinkerer... Group: Members Posts: 1,879 Joined: 7-April 03 From: Lyons, CO Member No.: 529 |
Had me crying at my desk...
I think if I had read this two years ago, I would have been impressed and in awe, but it wouldn't have had the emotional impact on me then that it did now. Why? Everytime I look into my 1 year old daughter's eyes, I know that I would do anything I could for her. And that this man is a true hero. Not only in the eyes of his son, but in the eyes of countless Dads around the world. -Josh2 |
BMXerror |
Sep 25 2006, 12:28 PM
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#11
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1,705 Joined: 8-April 06 From: Hesperia Ca Member No.: 5,842 |
Great story... inspiring.... emotional... all that... but what's with all you guys reading long storys on the 914 board at work? Aren't you supposed to be working?
Mark D. |
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