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, " 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 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 Dick, 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, " Dick 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 Dick' 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. " Dick 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 Dick 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, Dick, 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, Dick tried. Now they' ve done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in 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. " he says. Dick 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, Dick 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 Dick 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, 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 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."
我努力去做一个好爸爸。我送孩子们礼物，带他们去游泳，上夜班为他们挣信息费
但是，与迪克·霍伊特相比，我是一个糟糕的父亲。有85次，他在马松赛跑中，推着自己身患残疾的儿子跑完26.2英里。其中有8次，他不仅推着坐在轮椅中的儿子跑26.2英里，还接着在游泳比赛中，拖着坐在橡皮艇上的儿子游了2.4英里，用自行车载着儿子走了112英里——这一切都是在同一天里做的。迪克也带着儿子去越野滑雪，背着儿子爬山，他还骑自行车拖着儿子穿越了美国。比起迪克的所作所为，你带着儿子去打保龄球，就显得太差劲了，对吗？
那么，儿子里克又为父亲做了什么呢？除了救了父亲一命，就没有别的了。
这一动人的故事开始于马萨诸塞州的温切斯特镇。43年前，里克出生时因脐带绕颈而差点被勒死，这使他的大脑受到损伤，丧失了肢体的支配能力。迪克说，在里克九个月的时候，医生告诉他和妻子“他的余生都将是一个植物人了，把他送去一家福利院吧”。
但是，霍伊特夫妇并不接受这样的结局。霍伊特发现，当他和妻子在房间里走动时，里克的眼睛可以跟随着他们转动而转动。里克11岁的时候，霍伊特夫妇带儿子去了塔夫斯大学工程系，询问是否有什么方法，可以帮助孩子进行交流。“没有办法，他的大脑是空白的。”他们告诉迪克。
迪克反驳说：“你给他讲个笑话试试。”工作人员这样做了，结果里克笑了。这说明，他的大脑中是有思维意识的。里克终于可以通过安装在他身上的电脑进行交流了。这台电脑会在里克的一侧头部触碰开关时，由他自己控制光标。他“说”的第一句话就是：“我要看熊队！”一位高中生在一次事故中瘫痪后，学校为他组织了一次义跑。里克敲出一句话：“爸爸，我想跑步。”
是的，不错。迪克这样一个自喻为“肥猪”的人，怎样推着自己的儿子跑5英里？要知道，他从来没有一次跑过1英里以上。 然而，迪克尽力做了。“跑完之后，我就累瘫了。”迪克说，“我全身疼痛了两个星期。”那一天改变了里克的生活。他写道：“爸爸，当我们跑起来的时候，我觉得自己不再是个残疾人了!”
这句话也改变了迪克的生活。他变得热衷于尽可能多地给儿子这种感觉。迪克拥有了结实健壮的身体，于是他和里克决定尝试参加1979年的波士顿马松比赛。赛事官回答迪克：“不行。”霍伊特父子不算是一个独立的赛手，但也不算是残疾人选手。
接下来的数年里，里克和父亲只能进入大众领域，跟着赛手们一起跑。后来，他们得以正式地参加赛跑。1983年，他们跑得非常快，以至于赢得了次年马松比赛的参赛资格。
后来有人说：“喂，迪克，为什么不报名参加三项全能比赛？”迪克从6岁以后就再没有骑过自行车，而且从来没有学过游泳的他，又怎样拖着110斤重的儿子完成三项全能的比赛呢？然而，迪克尽力去做了。今天，他们已参加了212场三项全能比赛，其中包括四次在夏威夷举办的15小时铁人三项比赛。作为一个25岁的小伙子，坐在橡皮艇上被一位老人拖着，一定会很尴尬，你觉得呢？
迪克，为什么不尝试一下自己一个人参加比赛？迪克回答说：“我不会这样做的。”每当他们跑起来、一起游泳、一起骑车时，里克的脸上就会洋溢着幸福的笑容，而迪克这样做仅仅是为了那种看到儿子笑时的“美好的感觉”。今年，65岁的迪克和43岁的里克完成了他们的第24次波士顿马松比赛。在20000多名选手中，他们位居第5083位。他们最好的成绩是什么？是在1992年取得的2小时40分的比赛成绩，与世界纪录仅相差35分钟。也许你不知道，这个世界纪录当时是由一名残疾青年创造的，他完全依靠自己的力量推动轮椅前进。里克写道：“毫无疑问，我的父亲是百年不遇的好爸爸。”
除了这些，迪克还得到了一些其他收获。两年前，在一次比赛中，他患上了轻微的心脏病。医生们发现，他的一条动脉已堵塞了95%。一位医生告诉迪克：“如果不是你的身体好，在15年前你可能就死去了。”因此，从某种程度上说，迪克与里克拯救了彼此的生命。
里克现在自己生活（他雇用了家庭看护），在波士顿工作。迪克居住在马萨诸塞州的荷兰镇，也退出了高强度的运动生活。父子二人时常会聚在一起。他们在全国进行巡回演讲，每个周末都要参加某项高强度的比赛。今年的父亲节，他们也聚在一起了。
那天晚上，里克请父亲吃了一顿饭，可是里克真正想送给父亲的礼物是永远也买不到的。他写道：“我最想做的，就是爸爸坐在轮椅上，我为他推一次。”
泡 汤
Rainout
斯坦·本克斯基 / Stan Benkoski
The last time I went to Tiger Stadium（then known as Briggs Stadium） I was eight years old. My father came home from work and announced that he was taking me to the ball game. He was a fan, and we had gone to several day games before, but this would be my first night game.