Amazing story of a loving father...

My dad passed away when I was barely thirteen years old and it's not always easy as I tend to miss him more on the special times during the year. In particular, I am most saddened at the fact that he will not be there to witness his grandchild's life. A good friend forwarded this amazing story of the relentless love of a father which really enables one to see what it truly means to be a parent. I only pray that I can be1/10 of who this parent is...

Enjoy the article! There's also a link to a really touching video of the father and son.

Strongest Dad in the World

By Rick Reilly

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay fortheir 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 inmarathons. 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 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 Rick wasstrangled 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 himand 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 anythingto 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 alot was going on in his brain.Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor bytouching 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 morethan 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 twoweeks.''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 Rickthat feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 BostonMarathon.``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite asingle 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 raceofficially: I

n 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made thequalifying 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 hewas 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 Ironmansin 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,'' hesays. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeingRickwith a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick 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 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 theCentury.''And Dick 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 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 togive 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.... http://youtube.com/watch?v=ryCTIigaloQ