The Power of a Father's Unconditional Love

The Story Of Rick & Dick

This is an inspirational story of a father, Dick Hoyt, and his son, Rick, who together compete in marathons and triathlons across the country. The video above shown that the father not only pushed his disabled son, Rick, 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.

When Rick's was birth in year 1962, the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Although Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development, they brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school: "Because he couldn't talk they thought he wouldn't be able to understand, but that wasn't true." The dedicated parents taught Rick the alphabet. "We always wanted include Rick in everything," Dick said.

In year 1972, an interactive computer  allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick call it "my communicator", a  cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

One day, "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!"

And that sentence really changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with making Rick feel that as often as he could.

For the past 25 years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick. Until today, they've done 212 triathlons which include four grueling 15-hour Iron mans in Hawaii. This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick have finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters.

"No question about it, my dad is the Father of the Century." Rick types. 

In the same time, 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." It means that in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

When I am running, my disability seems to disappear. It is the only place where truly I feel as an equal. Due to all the positive feedback, I do not feel handicapped at all. Rather, I feel that I am the intelligent person that I am with no limits. I have a message for the world which is this: To take time to get to know people with disabilities for the individuals they are.

- Rick Hoyt -

What I’m doing is loaning Rick my arms and legs so he can be out there competing like everybody else. There is nothing in the world that the both of us can’t conquer together.

- Dick Hoyt -

 Cited from: http://bsix12.com/teamhoyt/