OT yet very worth watching

[Lotsa Luck]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=23...dfeed&hl=en

The story behind it.

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.

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 could push him just once.''

[shep]

Saw the clip, kind of brings a tear to your eye. Good on both of them!

[kamikaze]

Thanks for posting that...very inspiring story indeed.

[nuggethunting]

Hello Lotsa Luck,

Very touching story. The LORD is smiling on them both.

Take care,

Rob Allison

[nuggethunting]

Hello All,

I just had to watch the video one more time since it's so touching to the heart.

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

Trust me, there will be a time where this is very possible and at a much greater place than Earth.

Rob Allison

[DOC]

Two ends of the spectrum. Remember the old song the Cats in the Cradle ? You know the one about the dad that never had time for his son. Then when his son grew up, the son didn't have time for his father.

I've long since retired, my son's moved away

I called him up just the other day

I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"

He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time

You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu

But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad

It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me

He'd grown up just like me

My boy was just like me

And then we have this father, not someone in a song, someone in real life. Someone who gives true meaning to the words unconditional love. Of course we have never heard about this father and son on the news have we? That's because the "DRIVE BY" media is too busy reminding us what a worthless country we live in and that the FDA has now approved the morning-after pill, so more people can have irresponsible sex and never have to deal with the responsibility of raising a child if they don't want to.

This video warms my soul and brought many tears, but it also made me mad to think that we have never heard about this wonderful story of a father and sons love for one another until now.

If you haven't already thought of it on your own, maybe a call to your kids to tell them you are thinking about them would be in order!

Just another Dad

DOC

[joeforthegold]

Doc you are not just another Dad,

You are alright.

-Joe

[Lotsa Luck]

Going through some growing issues right now with my 19 yr old son. Thats kind of how I found out about this father son duo. Until I saw the video and did yet more research into the two I was all ready to toss my son out of the house. Now I know that would of been a huge over reaction and we are again talking and coming to reason. There's times I just don't want to be a parent anymore and then there are so many times I am very proud to be one.

Not sure I would try it again though...