A Leaders Way
He runs not just in his dreams
By John C. Maxwell
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 23:08:00 12/27/2008
Filed Under: People
WHEN Rick Hoyt was born in 1962, his parents possessed the typical excited expectations of first-time parents. But then they discovered that during Rick’s birth, his umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck, cutting off the oxygen to his brain. Later, Rick was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“When he was 8 months old,” his father, Dick, remembers, “the doctors told us we should put him away—he’d be a vegetable all his life.” But Rick’s parents wouldn’t do that.
They were determined to raise him like any other child.
An uphill battle
Sometimes that was tough. Rick is a quadriplegic who cannot speak because he has limited control of his tongue. But Rick’s parents worked with him, teaching him everything they could and include him in family activities.
When Rick was 10, his life changed when engineers from Tufts University created a device that enabled him to communicate via computer. The first words he slowly and painstakingly punched out were, “Go Bruins.” That’s when the family, who had been following the NHL’s Boston Bruins in the playoffs, found out Rick was a sports fan.
In 1975, after a long battle, the family was finally able to get Rick into public school, where he excelled despite his physical limitations. Rick’s world was changing. It changed even more two years later.
When Rick found out that a fund-raising 5-kilometer race was being put on to help a young athlete who had been paralyzed in an accident, he told his father he wanted to participate.
Dick, then a lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, was in his late 30s and out of shape. But he agreed to run and push his son in a modified wheelchair.
When they crossed the finish line—second to last—Dick recalls, Rick flashed “the biggest smile you ever saw in your life.” After the race, Rick wrote out this simple message: “Dad, I felt like I wasn’t handicapped.” After that day, their lives would never be the same again.”
Working together
What does a father do when his son, who has never been out of a wheelchair, says that he loves to race? He becomes his boy’s hands and feet. That’s the day “Team Hoyt” was born. Dick got Rick a more sophisticated racing chair.
Then the quadriplegic teenager and the out-of-shape dad began running together—and not just casually.
Before long, their training became more serious, and in 1981, they ran in their first Boston Marathon together. Since then, they haven’t missed a Boston Marathon in 20 years.
After four years of running marathons, the two decided that they were ready for another challenge: Triathlons, events which combine swimming, cycling and running. That was no small challenge, especially because Dick would have to learn how to swim! But he did.
Dick explained, “He’s the one who motivated me because if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be out there competing. What I’m doing is loaning Rick my arms and legs so he can be out there competing like everybody else.”
Of all the races in the world, one is considered the toughest—the Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. The race consists of three back-to-back legs: A 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike race and a full marathon run of 26.2 miles. It’s an excruciating test of stamina for any individual. In 1989, Dick and Rick competed in the race together. For the swimming portion, Dick towed a small boat with Rick in it. Then he biked for the 112 miles with Rick in a seat on his bicycle’s handlebars. By the time they got to the running leg, Dick was exhausted.
But all Dick had to do was think of the words of his son: When I’m running, my disability seems to disappear. It is the only place where truly I feel as an equal. Due to all the positive feedback, I do not feel handicapped at all. Rather, I feel that I am the intelligent person that I am with no limits.
And of course, they finished the race—in a strong time of 13 hours and 43 minutes.
Still competing
Since then, Rick has earned his college degree, and he works at Boston University helping to design computer systems for people with disabilities. And, of course, he still competes with his father, who is now over 60 years old and retired.
As of March 2001, Team Hoyt had completed a total of 731 races. They’ve run 53 marathons and 135 triathlons, including four races at Ironman distances. And they will keep running.
“There is nothing in the world that the both of us can’t conquer together,” says Dick. They live out the truth that a dream—and a team—can take you anywhere.
(Attend John Maxwell’s Developing The Leader Within You Workshop on Jan. 27-28, 2009 at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. Call Inspire Leadership Consultancy at 687-2614 or 0917-8511115.)
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