I try to be a good father. Give my kids love. Work nights to pay for their schooling. But1with Michael Hoyt, I am nothing.
This love2began in Winchester, 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled (勒住) by the umbilical cord (脐带) during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to3his limbs (四肢).
"He'll be a vegetable the4of his life," Doctors told Michael and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old.
But the Hoyts weren't5it. Because they noticed that Rick's
6followed them around the room. When Rick was 11 they took him to the engineering department and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. But doctors told the parents that there was7going on in their son's brain.
"Tell him a joke," Michael said to the doctors. They did and Rick8. Actually a lot was going on in his brain.
Equipped(装备) with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor (光标)9the side of his head, Rick was10able to communicate. What is his first word? "Run!" And after a high school classmate was paralyzed (瘫痪) in a(n)11and the school organized a charity run (慈善跑) for him, Rick typed, "Dad, I want to do that."
Yeah, right. How was Michael, a man who never ran more than a mile12going to push his son five miles?13he tried. Surprisingly, that day changed Rick's life. "Dad," he typed, "when we were running, it felt like I wasn't14anymore!"
And that sentence also changed Michael 's life. He wanted to give Rick that feeling as15as he could. Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times in triathlon (铁人三项).
"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Strongest Dad in the World."
