Yesterday, was a pretty good day, though i didn't do as much as i had hoped to. I did have a great game of Ultimate Frisbee in the morning, followed up by a 20 bike ride, i was actually quite disappointed in my ride, though i rode pretty strong, i just didn't see to have it in me to be out there too long on the bike. I don't know what is up with that. I did have to fight a pretty good head wind most of the ride. Flatwoods seems to be pretty good about having to fight the wind pretty much any way you go. I did end of passing pretty much everyone i had set out to. Also there was one rider who seemed to be riding pretty strong that took me awhile to catch him, when i did i sat on his wheel for about 30 seconds, then pulled up to take my turn pulling, to show that i wasn't just going to sit back on his wheel. After i took a pretty long pull at a good pace 22-23mph, i signaled that i was pulling off and going to let him pull. But he didn't pull up, so i had to continue to pull did this for a while more then tired to let him pull again, this time he did pull. He did pretty well, when it was my turn to pull again, i eased up and made sure that he had a chance to get under wheel before i really cranked up the speed. When i was ready for a break i signelled and pulled back only to find that i had uninvertently dropped him, i was pretty tired at this point, i rode hard expecting to have some help, but was never really helped by the guy so i decided to head in to listen to the rest of the bucs game.
I also had planned to throw in another run last night but that never did happen. Even though Monday's are suppose to be my day off i think i am going to go for a run this evening. i have to start bumping up my running mileage if i am going to be ready to run the 1/2 Marathon in February.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
2007 In Review 2008 Goals
Over the past 12 months my life has changed in many ways, most of them i would say are for the better. This year i have for one become much more goal oriented, and with that, i would like to take a quick step back, and look what all happened in my life in 2007, and take a look forward to 2008.
This past year, i have gone from a overweight, sedidentry guy, to someone who dreads not being able to work out and abhors being fat. I believe that i have had more change in my life in 2007 then pretty much any other year, at least that i can remember. I can only hope that i will see more change happen in 2008, and as long as i am able to stay healthy, then that should be acomplished.
In June of 2007 a good friend from college of mine, Neil put a photo of me on his facebook account. He did not put it up there to be mean or to poke fun at me, he did it b/c it was a picture of us from another of our friends weeding. But that photo has had more impact on me concerning my health than i believe any other thing. In photos we can truly see who we are, and what we look like. I find that many times in life, we can look at ourselves in a mirror and lie to ourselves, we look but we only see who we think we are not, what everyone else sees. But in pictures, we actually get to see who we really are. This photo did that for me, it let me see who i really was, a pathiticly overweight guy who was doing nothing but killing himself, as long as i kept up the lifestyle i was living. Looking at that photo i was discusted with myself, and that night i decided to make a change, and make one that would last the rest of my life. I decided that i was no longer going to be a fat ass. sorry for the crudeness, but that is what i was. From that day i was going to make a change, it is one that has taken me quite far already, but i still have a long way to go.
I didn't go to a surgeon and get some procedure done, i didn't go see a hpynotis to have them change my thinking, no i just decided that i was going get into shape, and that i was going to focus my attention on that goal. It was going to mean that i was going to have to change many aspects of my life. I was going to have to change my friends, change where, and what i ate, i was going to have to change all my priorities. Though i had some great friends that i would miss their company, i knew that if i continued down the same path that i was walking, yet expected to see a different result, then i would be a fool. I would have to change everything. And that is precisly what i did. I change everything.
I started July weighing 343.3 lbs. I knew that i would never weigh that much ever again. Thankfully i ended 2007 weighing 238lbs. For those of you not great at math, that is 105.3lbs lighter. I actually know adults who weigh that much. So over the course of 6 months i lost the equivelnt to a petit women, that is incrediable to me.
I also learned to love running, and working out. All my life growing up i don't believe that i every loved running, heck when i played football in highschool i hated running, but during this period of life change i came to love and look forward to a good run. and to anyone out there who is acutlly reading this blog who says i can't run, or i hate running, i encourage you to give it a fair try, and i bet that you might truly come to love it. There is just something about it, it will make you feel truly alive. After a good hard workout, the air that flows through your lungs, giving you right life giving oxyegon. all i can say is wow.
If it wasn't for my good dog buster who i had to have put down this year i don't think that i would have found out that i do in fact love running. You see my folks were out of town for a month in July, and i needed to go over and take buster out for a walk each day. Well after we were walking for about a week, i decided that i would try a little jog. I would say to buster who was 15years old how about we try jogging for a block, and that is how far we would go, then it would be two blocks, by the end of july i was dropping buster off after we had walk/jogged for about 30 min, and i would go out for another cirlce around the block, i was now able to jogged 3/4 of the block without stopping. Well august came and my folks got back in town, so i didn't need to keep walking buster, so i talked to a good friend of mine, and asked if i could walk their dog, a 2 year old black lab, who loved running. and with her, i truly started a love affair with running. Soon i was going out for 3-4 miles each day of jogging, I ended up competing in several 5k races over the next couple of months with my fastest time being 30:00. for those who don't know a 5k race is 3.1 miels long.
While doing one of these 5k races, i was introduced to another sport, or should i say three sports, it was called a Triathlon. I signed up to compete in a sprint Triathlon which i raced in and did quite well at the start of November. Well competeing in one of those was a blast and it opened up a whole new can of worms. for those of you who know me know that when i do something i have to do it to the absolute fullest. so now my sights are set on becomming an Iron Man. The Iron man length races are a 2.6mile swim, followed by a 112mile bike ride, then followed with a 26.2 mile run. In 2008 i plan on competeing in what they call a half iron man, which is a total of 70.3 miles. a 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 run. Then i would like to compete in a full ironman in 2009, so my goals are all associated with that. Getting into what they call ironfit. being able to compete in one of those events take tremendous training in a multitude of sports, i feel i am up for the challenge and i look forward to the races to come. For those who know me encourage me, and cheer me on, i know that i might not be spending much time with you anymore, but i feel that it is for my best, otherwise, i feel my life was going to be shortened and then there would be no way i could spend time with you.
To all i wish a great year, i know that it is going to be a great one for me. I am looking forward to 2008, i actually can't wait to be setting here in another year looking back, saying wow my life has changed so me over the past 12 months. join with me and make 2008 great.
Running most
This past year, i have gone from a overweight, sedidentry guy, to someone who dreads not being able to work out and abhors being fat. I believe that i have had more change in my life in 2007 then pretty much any other year, at least that i can remember. I can only hope that i will see more change happen in 2008, and as long as i am able to stay healthy, then that should be acomplished.
In June of 2007 a good friend from college of mine, Neil put a photo of me on his facebook account. He did not put it up there to be mean or to poke fun at me, he did it b/c it was a picture of us from another of our friends weeding. But that photo has had more impact on me concerning my health than i believe any other thing. In photos we can truly see who we are, and what we look like. I find that many times in life, we can look at ourselves in a mirror and lie to ourselves, we look but we only see who we think we are not, what everyone else sees. But in pictures, we actually get to see who we really are. This photo did that for me, it let me see who i really was, a pathiticly overweight guy who was doing nothing but killing himself, as long as i kept up the lifestyle i was living. Looking at that photo i was discusted with myself, and that night i decided to make a change, and make one that would last the rest of my life. I decided that i was no longer going to be a fat ass. sorry for the crudeness, but that is what i was. From that day i was going to make a change, it is one that has taken me quite far already, but i still have a long way to go.
I didn't go to a surgeon and get some procedure done, i didn't go see a hpynotis to have them change my thinking, no i just decided that i was going get into shape, and that i was going to focus my attention on that goal. It was going to mean that i was going to have to change many aspects of my life. I was going to have to change my friends, change where, and what i ate, i was going to have to change all my priorities. Though i had some great friends that i would miss their company, i knew that if i continued down the same path that i was walking, yet expected to see a different result, then i would be a fool. I would have to change everything. And that is precisly what i did. I change everything.
I started July weighing 343.3 lbs. I knew that i would never weigh that much ever again. Thankfully i ended 2007 weighing 238lbs. For those of you not great at math, that is 105.3lbs lighter. I actually know adults who weigh that much. So over the course of 6 months i lost the equivelnt to a petit women, that is incrediable to me.
I also learned to love running, and working out. All my life growing up i don't believe that i every loved running, heck when i played football in highschool i hated running, but during this period of life change i came to love and look forward to a good run. and to anyone out there who is acutlly reading this blog who says i can't run, or i hate running, i encourage you to give it a fair try, and i bet that you might truly come to love it. There is just something about it, it will make you feel truly alive. After a good hard workout, the air that flows through your lungs, giving you right life giving oxyegon. all i can say is wow.
If it wasn't for my good dog buster who i had to have put down this year i don't think that i would have found out that i do in fact love running. You see my folks were out of town for a month in July, and i needed to go over and take buster out for a walk each day. Well after we were walking for about a week, i decided that i would try a little jog. I would say to buster who was 15years old how about we try jogging for a block, and that is how far we would go, then it would be two blocks, by the end of july i was dropping buster off after we had walk/jogged for about 30 min, and i would go out for another cirlce around the block, i was now able to jogged 3/4 of the block without stopping. Well august came and my folks got back in town, so i didn't need to keep walking buster, so i talked to a good friend of mine, and asked if i could walk their dog, a 2 year old black lab, who loved running. and with her, i truly started a love affair with running. Soon i was going out for 3-4 miles each day of jogging, I ended up competing in several 5k races over the next couple of months with my fastest time being 30:00. for those who don't know a 5k race is 3.1 miels long.
While doing one of these 5k races, i was introduced to another sport, or should i say three sports, it was called a Triathlon. I signed up to compete in a sprint Triathlon which i raced in and did quite well at the start of November. Well competeing in one of those was a blast and it opened up a whole new can of worms. for those of you who know me know that when i do something i have to do it to the absolute fullest. so now my sights are set on becomming an Iron Man. The Iron man length races are a 2.6mile swim, followed by a 112mile bike ride, then followed with a 26.2 mile run. In 2008 i plan on competeing in what they call a half iron man, which is a total of 70.3 miles. a 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 run. Then i would like to compete in a full ironman in 2009, so my goals are all associated with that. Getting into what they call ironfit. being able to compete in one of those events take tremendous training in a multitude of sports, i feel i am up for the challenge and i look forward to the races to come. For those who know me encourage me, and cheer me on, i know that i might not be spending much time with you anymore, but i feel that it is for my best, otherwise, i feel my life was going to be shortened and then there would be no way i could spend time with you.
To all i wish a great year, i know that it is going to be a great one for me. I am looking forward to 2008, i actually can't wait to be setting here in another year looking back, saying wow my life has changed so me over the past 12 months. join with me and make 2008 great.
Running most
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
New Tires
So on Christmas eve i was on a 42 mile bike ride, with a couple of friends, when at about mile 25 while riding at about 21-22 mph my rear tire blew out. I was able to pull over safely and pulled took the rear tire off. I wondered what the cause was, the trail we were on was well taken care of, and there was no broken glass or anything on it. as i looked all around the tire it quickly came apparent as to why i had just gotten a flat, my tires were worn out. there was an area about 3 inches long that you could see that the tire had gone thread bear, and you actually see daylight through some of the tire. So the resourceful people that we are took some of the old tube, and glued it to the bottom to the tire, to make a barrier between the tire with a hole in it, and the new good tube. We put the new tube in, air it up using those neat CO2 cartridges that i have never used, and got back on the bike. we have about 16 more miles to go till we were back at our vehicles.
I had gotten pretty confident with our repair, and really started to crank on it again, when about 11 more miles into the ride, the tire blew again, at first i just tried to ride on the flat, but that was no good the tire was starting to come off the rim. So we decided to try to fix it again, this time we put a patch on the tire then three sections of tube, before we put the new tube it. Filled the tire up and got going again. this time i could feel the spot where all the patches were each time my tire rolled over that spot. but we where able to make it home safely, it kept me from cranking out a real good sprint at the end though, i was scared that it might blow on me again while riding at almost 30mph, i thought that could be pretty dangerous.
That afternoon after the ride, i picked up some new tires for the bike. and all is better.
Moral of the story take a look at your bike before you head out on a ride, make sure everything is in good working order. including checking your tires, b/c you can wear them out.
Running Most
I had gotten pretty confident with our repair, and really started to crank on it again, when about 11 more miles into the ride, the tire blew again, at first i just tried to ride on the flat, but that was no good the tire was starting to come off the rim. So we decided to try to fix it again, this time we put a patch on the tire then three sections of tube, before we put the new tube it. Filled the tire up and got going again. this time i could feel the spot where all the patches were each time my tire rolled over that spot. but we where able to make it home safely, it kept me from cranking out a real good sprint at the end though, i was scared that it might blow on me again while riding at almost 30mph, i thought that could be pretty dangerous.
That afternoon after the ride, i picked up some new tires for the bike. and all is better.
Moral of the story take a look at your bike before you head out on a ride, make sure everything is in good working order. including checking your tires, b/c you can wear them out.
Running Most
Being Sick Sucks
I have got to say that being sick has never been fun, but as someone who is now very concerned with working out, and getting into shape it really sucks, being sick in the past never really effected me that much, sure i didn't have my normal strength, and sure maybe i skipped going out, but it never really impacted so much of my life as being sick right now has to me. Being sick has made it pretty much impossible for me to get a good workout in. I went out for a ride on Friday it was going to be a real easy ride, but one that would hopefully let me get my legs back so i could feel strong for a great ride on Saturday. I was so weak on the ride, i had no ability to sprint at any decent pace, i didn't have any endurance either. Saturday morning came and the alarm clock rung to wake me up to get ready for the Gather ride, and man i felt like crap, there was no way i was going to keep up on that ride, so i ended up skipping it, and basically everything else that was to go on that day. I did end up leaving my house for about 30 min. but that wiped me out even more. Sunday i started to feel better but not well enough to go for a ride, or play ultimate, or do anything else outdoors that i wanted to. Another day of inactivity.
Monday i had my offices closed and this was going to be my first day back on the bike that i didn't feel awful. Though i by no means felt strong, it was a good day we did 42 miles, and averaged about 19mph. while i pulled i tried to keep us around 21, there was a pretty good head wind, that seemed to keep the speed down a bit. but it was a pretty good day back.
Tuesday, Christmas, For Christmas i cleaned my bike up and gave her some much needed new tires. Then i convinced lee and Doug to go out for a ride. Today we were heading to Flatwoods, and 8 mile loop that is well flat. Still not feeling 100% by any means, but i really seemed to be getting my strength back. which i am very happy about, ended up pretty much doing all the pulling that ride, while Doug and lee sat on my back wheel. I am glad though i know that, that only make me a stronger rider, i will not get much stronger if i am always sitting on someone's back wheel. I also kept the speed up pretty good that ride, usually averaged 22-23mph. there at the end lee and Doug tried to sprint on me, but i would not let them beat me, i took the pace up to 29mph, and they were just not able to hang.
Man it felt great to get back out there, and boy i really can't wait till i have my strength back 100%. Hopefully it will be coming soon.
Running Most
Monday i had my offices closed and this was going to be my first day back on the bike that i didn't feel awful. Though i by no means felt strong, it was a good day we did 42 miles, and averaged about 19mph. while i pulled i tried to keep us around 21, there was a pretty good head wind, that seemed to keep the speed down a bit. but it was a pretty good day back.
Tuesday, Christmas, For Christmas i cleaned my bike up and gave her some much needed new tires. Then i convinced lee and Doug to go out for a ride. Today we were heading to Flatwoods, and 8 mile loop that is well flat. Still not feeling 100% by any means, but i really seemed to be getting my strength back. which i am very happy about, ended up pretty much doing all the pulling that ride, while Doug and lee sat on my back wheel. I am glad though i know that, that only make me a stronger rider, i will not get much stronger if i am always sitting on someone's back wheel. I also kept the speed up pretty good that ride, usually averaged 22-23mph. there at the end lee and Doug tried to sprint on me, but i would not let them beat me, i took the pace up to 29mph, and they were just not able to hang.
Man it felt great to get back out there, and boy i really can't wait till i have my strength back 100%. Hopefully it will be coming soon.
Running Most
Friday, December 21, 2007
update
Sorry it has been so long since i have posted, things have been really crazy and busy in my life. between training, and work, i don't seem to have much time for anything else. Well i just got back from Tallahassee, where i got to surprise a great friend of mine. She was graduating from FSU's Nursing Program, she knew i was coming but that great surprise was how much weight i have lost, she had not see me since i was at my heaviest, so to be able to show up over 100 lbs lighter was great. The only unfortunate thing was, i picked up her cold. Which has really impacted my work out schedule this week, actually i have not been able to do one thing yet, which is killing me, i am feeling much better, and planning on riding the Gather ride tomorrow morning, which is a pretty quick ride of about 30 miles. The rest of the weekend should be filled with many more workouts. We will see how things pan out though.
Running Most
Running Most
Friday, November 30, 2007
Hill Training Sucks
Let me tell you that i live in the beautiful state of Florida which has many benefits for the Triathlete.
1. Florida's wonderful weather is ideal for year long training. Most of the time, it is not cold, it never seems to snow down here, so the worst it is going to be cool, and raining.
2. Florida is predominately flat. Need i say more.
I really had a lot more to say in the post, but just didn't have time, it has taken me more than 3 hours to just type this much, so i will try to pick this up later.
1. Florida's wonderful weather is ideal for year long training. Most of the time, it is not cold, it never seems to snow down here, so the worst it is going to be cool, and raining.
2. Florida is predominately flat. Need i say more.
I really had a lot more to say in the post, but just didn't have time, it has taken me more than 3 hours to just type this much, so i will try to pick this up later.
Friday, November 16, 2007
back story to "can"
So i did some checking and here is the back story about "can" Please feel free to check out their website www.teamhoyt.com they are a very inspirational team.
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five 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.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."
The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "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 Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."
A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to 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.
When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.
In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."
Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:
" What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck."
It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:
"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."
After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."
With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.
"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.
They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.
And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:
"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working."
The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."
Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:
"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or "Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they’ll say "Go Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this."
Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.
"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."
That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."
Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"
Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.
Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.
Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father’s dedication — perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:
"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life."
Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.
It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.
For the past twenty five 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.
At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."
The couple brought their son home determined to raise him as "normally" as possible. Within five years, Rick had two younger brothers, and the Hoyts were convinced Rick was just as intelligent as his siblings. Dick remembers the struggle to get the local school authorities to agree: "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 Rick included in everything," Dick said. "That’s why we wanted to get him into public school."
A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to 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.
When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season, and his family realized he had been following the hockey games along with everyone else. "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.
In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."
Rick’s realization turned into a whole new set of horizons that opened up for him and his family, as "Team Hoyt" began to compete in more and more events. Rick reflected on the transformation process for me, using his now-familiar but ever-painstaking technique of picking out letters of the alphabet:
" What I mean when I say I feel like I am not handicapped when competing is that I am just like the other athletes, and I think most of the athletes feel the same way. In the beginning nobody would come up to me. However, after a few races some athletes came around and they began to talk to me. During the early days one runner, Pete Wisnewski had a bet with me at every race on who would beat who. The loser had to hang the winner’s number in his bedroom until the next race. Now many athletes will come up to me before the race or triathlon to wish me luck."
It is hard to imagine now the resistance which the Hoyts encountered early on, but attitudes did begin to change when they entered the Boston Marathon in 1981, and finished in the top quarter of the field. Dick recalls the earlier, less tolerant days with more sadness than anger:
"Nobody wanted Rick in a road race. Everybody looked at us, nobody talked to us, nobody wanted to have anything to do with us. But you can’t really blame them - people often are not educated, and they’d never seen anyone like us. As time went on, though, they could see he was a person — he has a great sense of humor, for instance. That made a big difference."
After 4 years of marathons, Team Hoyt attempted their first triathlon — and for this Dick had to learn to swim. "I sank like a stone at first" Dick recalled with a laugh "and I hadn’t been on a bike since I was six years old."
With a newly-built bike (adapted to carry Rick in front) and a boat tied to Dick’s waist as he swam, the Hoyts came in second-to-last in the competition held on Father’s Day 1985.
"We chuckle to think about that as my Father’s Day present from Rick, " said Dick.
They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.
And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:
"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working."
The Hoyts’ mutual inspiration for each other seems to embrace others too — many spectators and fellow-competitors have adopted Team Hoyt as a powerful example of determination. "It’s been funny," said Dick "Some people have turned out, some in good shape, some really out of shape, and they say ‘we want to thank you, because we’re here because of you’."
Rick too has taken full note of their effect on fellow-competitors while racing:
"Whenever we are passed (usually on the bike) the athlete will say "Go for it!" or "Rick, help your Dad!" When we pass people (usually on the run) they’ll say "Go Team Hoyt!" or "If not for you, we would not be out here doing this."
Most of all, perhaps, the Hoyts can see an impact from their efforts in the area of the handicapped, and on public attitudes toward the physically and mentally challenged.
"That’s the big thing," said Dick. "People just need to be educated. Rick is helping many other families coping with disabilities in their struggle to be included."
That is not to say that all obstacles are now overcome for the Hoyts. Dick is "still bothered," he says, by people who are discomforted because Rick cannot fully control his tongue while eating. "In restaurants - and it’s only older people mostly - they’ll see Rick’s food being pushed out of his mouth and they’ll leave, or change their table. But I have to say that kind of intolerance is gradually being defeated."
Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education. That was followed a few weeks later by another entry in the Boston Marathon. As he fondly pictured it: "On the day of the marathon from Hopkinton to Boston people all over the course were wishing me luck, and they had signs up which read `congratulations on your graduation!’"
Rick now works at Boston College’s computer laboratory helping to develop a system codenamed "Eagle Eyes," through which mechanical aids (like for instance a powered wheelchair) could be controlled by a paralyzed person’s eye-movements, when linked-up to a computer.
Together the Hoyts don’t only compete athletically; they also go on motivational speaking tours, spreading the Hoyt brand of inspiration to all kinds of audiences, sporting and non-sporting, across the country.
Rick himself is confident that his visibility — and his father’s dedication — perform a forceful, valuable purpose in a world that is too often divisive and exclusionary. He typed a simple parting thought:
"The message of Team Hoyt is that everybody should be included in everyday life."
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