Possibly the most inspirational/AMAZING thing I have ever seen

[mosthated770]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to payFor their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.
But compared with ++$# Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles inMarathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in aWheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming andPedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

++$#'s also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his backMountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. On a bike. MakesTaking 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 RickWas strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving himBrain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' ++$# says doctors told himAnd his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in anInstitution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyesFollowed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to theEngineering department at Tufts University and asked if there wasAnything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' ++$# says he was told.``There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' ++$# countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out aLot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowedHim to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of hisHead, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!''And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and theSchool organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I wantTo do that.''

Yeah, right. How was ++$#, a self-described ``porker'' who never ranMore than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, heTried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' ++$# says. ``I was soreFor 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 ++$#'s life. He became obsessed with givingRick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-bellyShape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' ++$# was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite aSingle runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a fewYears ++$# and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, thenThey found a way to get into the raceOfficially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made theQualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, ++$#, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since heWas six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, ++$#Tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hourIronmans in Hawaii . It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old studGetting passed by an old guy towing a grown man in a dinghy, don't youThink?

Hey, ++$#, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says.++$# does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick withA cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, ++$# and Rick finished their 24th BostonMarathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their bestTime? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the worldRecord, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens toBe held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at theTime.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of theCentury.''

And ++$# got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had aMild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteriesWas 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,''One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''So, in a way, ++$# and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston,and ++$#, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass. ,always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the countryand compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including thisFather'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 thechair and I push him once.''

And the video is below....


http://www.youtube.com/v/Wy8hOOvM0t0&hl=en_US&fs=1&http://www.youtube.com/v/Wy8hOOvM0t0&hl=en_US&fs=1&

 

[shoes n basketball]

God bless his soul.

 

[kidfly sniperelite007]

Cliffs??

 

[mosthated770]

Originally Posted by KIDFLY SniperElite007

Cliffs??

not posting cliffs.. your loss if u dont want to read it/watch the video..

trust me.. its worth it..

 

[illmatic34]

I've seen this before. Props.

 

[18key]

Originally Posted by KIDFLY SniperElite007

Cliffs??

Read it. It's worth it.

Great story, OP.

 

[shoes n basketball]

We need to enjoy our life more.

 

[millionuppercuts]

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

  This got me..

 

[airmaxwun]

My homeboy lost his right leg.
Now he does Kayaking!!! LOL!!!

I bought him some white MITA Dunks, and everyone gave me crap for it.

 

[throwedindagame]

Originally Posted by KIDFLY SniperElite007

Cliffs??

No. Not for this story.

 

[Gill Baka Esq. LLC.]

Very inspirational. That's pure unconditional love right there.

 

[vanillagorilladx]

No wonder why his name was censored in the story. His name is .ick

 

[theswoosh]

Seriously the best thing I've ever read on NT. OP thank you for posting this.

 

[jus3]

That's a damn good read.

It really puts a perspective on how we should live our lives...

 

[mosthated770]

Originally Posted by VanillaGorillaDX

No wonder why his name was censored in the story. His name is .ick

didnt even realize it lol

 

[jcach]

Originally Posted by JUS3

That's a damn good read.

It really puts a perspective on how we should live our lives...

+1

 

[imixedi]

Props. Teared me up a little. Wish I had a father figure like that..just makes me want to be a better father when I have a son.

 

[bilbo07]

bookmarked

 

[the notorious bum]

Thanks for posting OP, really touching.
God Bless that man

 

[strongmind3]

Originally Posted by MOSTHATED770

Originally Posted by VanillaGorillaDX

No wonder why his name was censored in the story. His name is .ick

didnt even realize it lol

i thought the writer was cursing up a storm 

but thats a beautiful story...i got that warm feeling when the reporter was reading that letter to .ick

 

[bns1201]

bookmarked for a write up tmrw. watched/read the whole thing. too tired to say all i need to say

 

[wren32]

thats crazy it makes me feel like things are easy in my life. lol GREAT story.

 

[nycknicks105]

That man is the def of what a father is.

 

[feelmode]

good read/watch

 

[keithsweatsjordans]

These are the kind of things I try to remember when I complain about the most trivial things