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？