Most of us likely can’t imagine running a 26.2-mile marathon, or competing in a triathlon that involves a marathon, biking 112 miles, and swimming 2.4 miles.
Yet in Spring 2009, Team Hoyt—a father and son from Massachusetts, will complete their 1,000th race when they compete in the Boston Marathon. This achievement is even more remarkable when you consider the fact that Rick Hoyt can’t walk or talk due to cerebral palsy.
Rick was born with his umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, cutting off blood supply to his brain and leaving him as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.
“Specialists told us that there was no hope for Rick and that he should be institutionalized,” says Dick Hoyt.
Cerebral Palsy Not a Factor
But Dick and his former wife, Judy, vowed to raise their son at home just like any other child. Rick was included on errands and dinners out, along with his two brothers. By the time Rick was five years old, the Hoyts noticed him following them with his eyes and realized that despite his limited movement—Rick could only slightly move his head—he had intelligence.
Dick and Judy taught Rick the alphabet and vowed to get him into public school. But convincing others that Rick had untapped abilities wasn’t easy. After a long search, a group of Tufts University engineers recognized Rick’s abilities when he laughed at their jokes and agreed to build an interactive computer that allowed Rick to write out his thoughts—one letter at a time—using his slight head movements.
At age 12, Rick began to attend public school and after graduating from high school, went on to earn a degree in special education from Boston University. He got his own apartment and worked in Boston College’s computer laboratory until recently when he moved to Western Massachusetts to be closer to his dad.
Team Hoyt Begins
Team Hoyt began in 1977, when Rick found out about a 5-mile race in their hometown of Westfield, Massachusetts, to raise funds for a local college athlete who had become a paraplegic from an automobile accident.
“Rick came home from school, told me about the accident, and said he wanted to show the athlete that even if he’s disabled, life goes on,” says Dick, who was 40 at the time.
During that first race Dick pushed Rick in a standard wheelchair that kept pulling into the woods. A former high school athlete, Dick was holding down three jobs to pay Rick’s medical bills and hadn’t worked out in years.
“After the race I jokingly told Rick I felt disabled,” he says. In contrast, the race gave Rick a feeling of freedom he had never experienced. After the race, he told his dad, ‘When I run, it feels like my disability disappears.’
Since then, Team Hoyt has competed just about continuously, completing an average of 50 races a year until last year when they cut back to 39, since Dick is feeling his 68 years. When Dick runs, he pushes Rick in a streamlined racing wheelchair. When he bikes, Rick sits in a seat above the front wheel. During swims, Dick pulls Rick in a heavy dingy.
Team Hoyt Seeks Acceptance for People with Disabilities
The biggest challenge Team Hoyt has faced over the years is not the grueling races, but getting others to accept people with disabilities.
“In the older generation, children like Rick were often put into institutions and not educated. Or families would baby them or feel sorry for them,” he says. “Rick accepts his disability and has gotten to do everything he wanted to.
Check out the Team Hoyt website
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