one word "can"
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 164
From: Anchorage,Alaska
one word "can"
not sure if this was posted anywhere but it brought tears to my eyes. the human spirit is amazing.
> by Rick Reilly
>
> This 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," **** 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," ****
> says he was told. "there's nothing going on in his brain." "Tell him a joke,"
> **** 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 ****, 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," **** 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 ****'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," **** 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
> **** 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, ****, 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, **** tried. Now they've done 212
> triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzz kill
> 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, ****, 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 with a
> cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages
> 65 and 43, **** 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 **** 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, **** 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 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 to give 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."
>
> Click on the links below to watch a video of this father and his son
> in an Iron Man race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPr...e&search=ironma
> by Rick Reilly
>
> This 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," **** 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," ****
> says he was told. "there's nothing going on in his brain." "Tell him a joke,"
> **** 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 ****, 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," **** 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 ****'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," **** 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
> **** 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, ****, 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, **** tried. Now they've done 212
> triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzz kill
> 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, ****, 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 with a
> cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. This year, at ages
> 65 and 43, **** 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 **** 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, **** 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 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 to give 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."
>
> Click on the links below to watch a video of this father and his son
> in an Iron Man race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjPr...e&search=ironma
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