Everytime, when you lose heart and you think about, what may be that what you are doing is not for you, or you are not able to do it, remember the story of Dick Hoyt. He had to overcome hundreds of times more, than many of us have to overcome on the way to their dreams.
Eighty-five times he rolled the stroller with Rick, his disabled son in marathons 26,2 miles. Eight times he not only rolled it 26,2 miles in a wheelchair,
but also dragged his boat 2,4 mi myself sailing at this time, and pedaled 112 miles carrying my son in the seat on the handlebars of his bicycle - all on the same day. Dick also took him on skiing trips, mountain climbing and once drove him in the trailer of his motorcycle across America. Isn't that right, if you take your son to the bowling alley, it will not be at all?
And what Rick did for his father? Nothing special, Besides, that saved his life.
This love story began in Winchester, Massachusetts 43 years ago
back, when Riku choked his throat with the umbilical cord during childbirth, Which caused
to damage to his brain - he could not control his limbs.
“He will be a vegetable all his life.”, so said Dr. Dick and his wife Judy,
when Riku was 9 Months. “Put him in a shelter”.
But the Hoyts didn't buy their words.. They noticed, what Rick followed with his eyes,
when they walked around the room. When Riku was 11 years they took him to the University
Taffeta to the Faculty of Engineering to find out if something can be invented for that,
so that the boy can communicate. “Absolutely nothing”, heard dick in reply. “Nothing happens in his brain”. “Tell him anecdote”, objected dick. They told. Rick laughed. It turns out that there was a lot going on in his brain..
Having mastered the computer, which allowed him to control the cursor by touching the joystick with one side of his head, Rick gained the ability to communicate. The first words were: “Forward, Mice!” (Mice — Boston hockey team name ). And when his classmate was paralyzed in an accident, and the school organized a run for the donation cathedral, Rick typed: “I want to participate in it”. To her, Right away! How is it dick, who calls himself a piglet, unable to run more than a mile at a time, will be able to push a stroller with his son five miles? Still he tried. “Happened, that I myself have become “disabled””, said dick. “My muscles ached for two weeks”.
This day turned Riku upside down his whole life. “Dad”, he typed, “when we were running, I myself
did not feel disabled anymore”. And this proposal changed Dick's whole life. He became
obsessed with, to give Rick this feeling over and over. He has found such a sports form, that I was ready to participate in the Boston Marathon 1979 of the year. “Not”, the marathon manager told him. The Hoyts did not perform, as one runner, and it wasn't a wheelchair runner competition. For several years, Dick and Rick simply joined the running crowd and ran anyway., and then found a way to participate in the marathon officially: in 1983 they ran a marathon so fast, met the deadline for the next Boston marathon.
Then someone said: “Hey, Dick, why not try triathlon?”How does a person, who did not know how to swim and who did not ride a bicycle since the age of six would drag 110 pound kid in triathlon? Still Dick tried. Now they've passed 212 triathlons, including four of them thinner in Hawaii during 15 hours. You can imagine the reaction of a 25-year-old boy, overtaken by a citizen aged, pulling a boat with an adult sitting in it. Hey, Dick, let's see how you would do it alone? “Never”, he replied. Dick does it just for “amazing feeling”, which he gets, seeing Rick with a smile from ear to ear, when they run together, swim and roll on a bicycle.
This year, Age 65 And 43, Dick and Rick Finish 24th Boston Marathon, ranking 5083rd out of more than 20000 started. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 year, only 35 more minutes, than the world record, which the (if you don't follow this) only happens to the participant, not pushing another person in a wheelchair in front of him.
“No questions”, Rick prints. “My father — Father of the Century!”. Dick also dragged the benefit from everything
of this. Two years ago he had a small heart attack, what happened during the run.
The doctors found out, that one of his arteries was blocked by 95%. “If you weren't in
great shape”, one doctor told him, “you would die yo 15 back ago”.
It turns out, that in some way, Dick and Rick saved each other.
Rick, who lives in a separate apartment (receiving care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the army and living in the city of Holland, Massachusetts, always find ways to be together. They give speeches all over the country and compete in a race every weekend, including Father's Day.
