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Welcome to episode 293 of Behind the Shield Podcast.
As always, my name's James Gearing,
and this week it is my absolute honor
to welcome on the show Dick Hoyt.
Now for those of you with social media,
you've probably seen videos of Dick pushing, pulling,
running with his son, Rick.
Now Rick was born with cerebral palsy
and some other medical issues that prevented him
from being able to move, being able to talk.
But as you will hear, the pure love of a father
enabled him to find the tools to be able to communicate,
and the pure love of the son led his father
into the world of racing, and at 80 years old,
they are still running, swimming, and cycling together,
as well as inspiring a nation to run and do the same thing,
and also help fundraise to enable other families
in a similar position to also get their child involved
in activities like this.
So an incredible conversation,
an incredible exhibition of pure family love,
and I can't wait for you to hear it.
Before we get to the episode, like I say, every single week,
please just take a moment, go to whichever app
you listen to this podcast on, subscribe to the show,
leave feedback, and leave a rating.
The more five-star ratings we get,
the more visible we become, and therefore,
people needing to hear these incredible men and women
are able to find this podcast.
And then obviously taking social media, word of mouth,
email, and sharing these as well.
I can't stress enough how proud I am of this becoming
a huge library of incredible information,
incredibly inspiring stories, and all that I ask
is you help me share these men and women's life stories,
life work to the men and women on planet Earth
who need to hear it.
So with that being said, I introduce to you Dick Hoyt.
Enjoy.
I would love to start at the very beginning.
I know that your early life is very interesting,
and I'm sure it kind of plays into your role
as a father as well.
So where were you born, and what was your family
dynamic?
June 1st, 1940.
I was one of 10 children.
We had five boys and five girls.
Amazing.
Whereabouts were you born?
We lived in a little town called North Reading, Mass,
which hardly anybody knows about.
Brilliant.
So and you were kind of around the middle, is that right,
of the 10 kids?
Yes.
Yep.
All right.
Well, I mean, we're going to obviously hear
about the incredible racing that you do later in your life.
As a young man, were you an athlete back then?
Yes, I was.
Yes.
Yeah, when I went through high school,
I played all the sports that they had.
And I was captain of the baseball team.
I played baseball, tried off for the Yankees as a catcher,
and I also played football captain of the football team,
even though I was as small as I am and stuff like that.
But I just loved sports.
And actually, I wanted to be a boxer.
And my father wanted me to be a boxer.
And my mother said, no, if you become a boxer,
you're going to break your nose.
So instead, I played football and broke my nose four times.
Ha ha ha.
Why can't I attest to that?
I'm sitting here right now talking to you
with a broken nose myself.
I did martial arts for quite a few years.
So either way, it's going to get broken as a man probably.
Yeah.
All right, now, if my research is correct,
you met Judy when you were at high school,
that you met her?
Yes, I did.
Yes.
Yeah, I was captain of the football team,
and she was the head cheerleader.
But I think it's beautiful, though, that you guys were
high school sweethearts.
I think that's amazing.
Yes, yes, it was.
It was great.
I'll never forget going through school and playing sports
and being involved.
I got involved in a lot of different activities
in the school.
Right, now, an observation I've made in America
is that you get these men and women that
are playing at very high level.
But when they graduate high school or college,
whatever level they got to, then it kind of tapers off.
Were you able to continue sports,
or did you find yourself not playing
once you were outside of college?
No, actually, when I graduated high school,
I went into the military.
And I was in the military for 25 years.
OK, so then did you do a lot of running and PT early
in your career there, too?
Yes, I did.
Matter of fact, they put me in charge
of all the physical activities and running races
and getting timed and races and stuff
to keep the people that were in the military in good shape
and stuff like that, yes.
Right, OK, so then I guess lead me
into having Rick and kind of that journey up to it
and then the short time after.
Yeah, I'd like to take it back to January 10, 1962.
And that was Rick's birth.
And Rick was our very first baby.
And when Rick was being born, the doctor
said, forget Rick, put him away.
Put him in an institution.
He's going to be nothing but a vegetable
for the rest of his life.
And we said, no, we're not going to put Rick away.
We're going to bring Rick home and bring him up
like any other child.
And this is what we have done.
Rick has been mainstreamed and included all of his life.
Today, Rick is 58 years old.
He's graduated from public high school.
He's graduated from Boston University.
He lives all by himself in his own apartment.
And Rick and I have competed in over 1,200 athletic events.
It's incredible, absolutely incredible.
So I want to explore that whole thing.
So as a firefighter paramedic, I've
been to facilities where little boys and little girls have been,
as you put it, sent away.
They're basically abandoned by their parents
because they are special needs.
And it's absolutely heartbreaking to watch
because these kids exist in a facility.
They don't have any love from parents anymore.
Well, yes, they do.
Yes, they do because we have started the Team Hoyt
organization.
And we have eight different states in the United States.
And they call themself Team Hoyt in the name of the states.
And all of their children are being brought up
so that they can be out competing and running.
And we are building Team Hoyt running chairs.
And we compete all over the United States.
And it's getting bigger and bigger.
It's just so awesome what things are going on and happening.
Yeah, and that's just it.
So you guys are part of the solution to this.
Now, I'm involved in the CrossFit arena too.
So in the last probably 10 years,
we've seen a lot of adaptive athletics coming out,
especially from so many of the wounded warriors
that are coming back.
But you, like several other guests
that I've had where they've had children or were children that
were born with some sort of physical or mental defect,
you were way ahead of the curve with the adaptation
as far as refusing to accept that it should
be any different for Rick.
So tell me what fueled your philosophy
and what were some of the changes you made when he was young
to ensure that he was able to try and experience the same
things that other kids were?
Well, see, we told the doctors, no, we're
going to bring Rick home and bring him up
like any other child.
And this is what we have done.
Rick has been mainstreamed and included all of his life.
And we got Rick involved in the schools and into sports
when he first started school.
And it's amazing what he's been able to do.
As a matter of fact, when he got a little bit older,
he saw me and he said, Dad, I want to do something.
I want to run.
And I would like to have you run in a road race with me.
And that's how it all started.
And at the time, he was eight years old.
Oh, I'm sorry, 15 years old when he asked me to do that.
And they were having a road race out in Westfield, Massachusetts
for a fellow that was injured.
He was paralyzed from the waist down.
And Rick told me about the whole story.
And he said, Dad, I have to do something for him.
I want to let him know that life goes on even though he's
disabled.
And so I told Rick, we will go down.
But we didn't have a chair.
The only chair we had was Rick's wheelchair, which I know you've
probably seen wheelchairs where they're very big and heavy.
But we went down to the race.
It was a 5K race.
Rick and I finished coming in next to last but not last.
And it was just amazing when we finished that.
And when Rick saw me afterwards, he said, Dad, when I'm running,
it feels like my disability disappears, which was a very
powerful message to me.
If you think about it, somebody that's in a wheelchair can't
talk, use their arms and their legs.
And now they're out there running.
And his disability disappears.
He called himself Freebird because now he
was able to be out there running and competing
with all the other races.
That's incredible.
Well, firstly, I want to point out, so there's a young 15-year-old
boy who's thinking more about someone else than himself.
So obviously, forgetting the physical disability side, you've
raised a very kind, empathetic young man.
Exactly.
Yes.
Beautiful.
Now, another thing to highlight as well, you weren't in great
shape when you started running again.
You hadn't run for a while.
Right.
That's exactly right.
So after that first race, Rick said, Dad, when I'm running,
it feels like my disability disappears.
So I told Rick, if we're going to continue running, we're
going to have to get a chair built.
So I wouldn't be hurting as badly.
So we went up to Crotchett Mountain in New Hampshire.
And we met an engineer up there.
We told him, well, you wanted for a chair.
And he built this chair for us, and it had one wheel in the front
and two wheels in the back.
And then when we got this, we come home, and Rick and I
started to run in different races.
And when we first started going to these races, nobody wanted
anything to do with us.
But we did not give up.
We went to these races.
And we would be out there running.
And a lot of people come up to us and say, what are you doing
dragging your son through all these races?
Are you just looking for glory?
I said, no, this is my son.
And he loves to be out there running with everybody else.
As you can see with this picture,
I had a picture of him smiling with that big smile on his face
as we were running.
So we decided we wanted to run the Boston Marathon.
So I applied through the Boston Athletic Association.
And they turned us down.
They said, no, you can't run with us because you're
different than anybody else.
But the Boston Marathon has a wheelchair division.
So we went and talked to them.
And they said the same thing.
But what they said was, if you want,
you can line up behind us and run.
And that's when we did our first Boston Marathon.
And it was very difficult at the time,
because I had never run in a marathon.
And we had a hard time.
And we did it very well.
And then we had seven more miles to go.
So we stopped and rested for a while.
But then we were able to finish our first Boston Marathon.
That's incredible, incredible.
And it's the thing, when we look at, say, the Olympics now,
we have the entire Special Olympics.
The generation that's coming up would make the assumption
that there's always been two Olympics, the able body
and then the adaptive.
But this is a very new thing.
First Boston Marathon, we did in three hours and 18 minutes.
Really?
My god.
Yeah.
Incredible.
Now, I'm saying on the Boston Marathon,
just kind of fast forwarding time,
you guys were actually at the Boston Marathon
when we had the bombings in, is it 2013?
Yes.
So what was that experience like for you?
Well, it was very difficult. We could
stop with only a mile to go at the Boston Marathon.
And now we have team hoists throughout the United States.
And so there was quite a few people
that were running with Rick and I. There was about 10 of us.
Then we got to that point, and the police stopped us.
And they said, that's it.
You can't go any further.
And half the people said they knew how to walk from there
to where the hotel was.
And we had this gentleman that came out of the crowd.
And he says, Dick, I have a vehicle up there.
If you want, you can use it.
And he says, if you can't, he says,
I will be happy to drive you and Rick to your hotel
where you were staying.
So he drove us to the hotel where we were staying.
And it took him an hour to drive that one mile to the hotel.
That's how crowded it was and everything that was going on
with the bombing.
But we got there at the hotel, and fortunately,
all our parents who were sitting in the stands at the time
came back to the hotel.
And fortunately, none of them were injured.
Well, thank goodness.
Yeah, and there was basically some more adaptive athletes
came out of that.
Some of the men and women that lost limbs
that I've seen are racing now again,
but obviously with the prosthetics.
So it's such a tragic, tragic event.
But again, the resiliency of some of your community
is so impressive.
Right, well, thank you, yes.
Right, we're going back to Rick for a moment.
So his actual condition sounds like a terrible word,
but diagnosis is cerebral palsy and non-verbal spastic
quadriplegia.
So obviously, that takes away the control of the limbs
and also his speech.
Tell me how you guys were able to begin to communicate.
Well, we knew Rick was very smart,
and what we wanted to do was get him into public school.
So we went and met some engineers in Boston,
and we talked to them.
We told them what we wanted, and we wanted him
to start public school where nobody wanted
Rick to go to school.
And so they built a computer system for us
that Rick could control with his head.
And that's how Rick was able to get in and starting school.
And he's still using these computers
to do speaking engagements and traveling all over the place.
And he's graduated from high school.
He's graduated from Boston University.
And he lives all by himself in his own apartment.
And he writes letters to people and everything else.
Absolutely incredible, especially when I read about
graduating from college.
I mean, that's a huge achievement for someone
that has to use such a different, challenging way
of communication.
Well, that was probably the toughest day of my life,
because we lived out in Westfield, which
was a good two-hour ride to Boston University.
And for me to drive him in there and drop him off all
by himself with people he didn't even
know to attend Boston University.
And he ended up graduating from Boston University.
Incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
So we see the video of you guys doing the races, which
in itself is mind-blowing.
And I want to get back to that again in a minute.
But these are the other parts that we don't know about,
these incredible feats he had outside the races.
What was it like for you when this new computer was built
and you've really got to hear your son's thoughts and speech
for the first time?
Yes, it was just awesome.
Because we'd go to school with him, with his computer,
and to see him be able to talk to the teachers and stuff
like that, and answer questions, and do arithmetic and stuff
like that on his computer going to school.
Incredible.
All right, well then, so you're doing the running.
So how did cycling and then swimming factor in
as you started going down that racing journey?
Well, Rick and I, we love to be out there running and stuff
like that.
And so I talked to Rick.
I said, Rick, what about doing triathlons?
And at the time, I did not know how to swim or anything else.
And so I told Rick, I said, we're going to start swimming.
I'm going to have to buy a new house on a lake
so I can learn how to swim.
And that's what I did.
I was in the process of changing jobs.
I was moving from Westfield to Wellesley, Mass.
And where I bought the house is in Holland, Massachusetts.
So that was halfway to Wellesley.
And it was just so awesome.
Because I'll never forget the first day
I came down into the lake, and I jumped in the water
and swam a mile.
And that's how I started doing my training and stuff like that.
So it was really nice to be able to live in a lake,
and I still live here.
And I love to be here on the lake.
And that's what got us going into triathlons.
And I also, we had to come up with a different type of bike.
And people used to go crazy.
Because what I did is I had a bike made,
and I put a seat in front of the bike where Rick would sit.
And I would drive bike with him all over the place.
And people would go crazy as we drove
through these different towns and places and stuff like that.
Now, when Rick was going to school and college,
I couldn't train with him.
So I used to take a 96-pound bag of cement
and put it in the front of the chair
and use that to do my training with Rick.
Because at that time, that's what he weighed.
That's amazing, absolutely amazing.
And I'm sure you've got so many funny looks.
Why don't you just put it in the car,
take it to the building site?
Yeah, well, people, they still look at us and stuff like that
and say, oh, jeez, what are they doing?
Yeah.
So you mentioned about him feeling
like he was running when you were pushing the chair.
What was his feeling when he's being pulled?
Because you were pulling him in a dinghy, a rubber dinghy,
is that right?
Yes, a boat, an inflatable boat.
Yeah, so that must have been amazing for him
to be in a body of water, which must be very, very new for him
as far as being on top.
What did he tell you after the first time
you guys swam like that?
He really enjoyed it.
He thought it was a lot of fun because he was out there.
And you can see all the birds flying around and stuff
like that and see other people out there in the lake,
kayaking and water skiing and stuff like that.
He really enjoyed going all around the lake and stuff.
And now we have a boat and stuff like that.
So we take him out on the boat and do as much as we can
with him in the boat and in the water.
Amazing.
So it seems to me like your whole philosophy was never,
oh, we can't.
It's just figuring out, well, how can we?
Which I think a lot of people need to adhere to that philosophy.
Well, we made it so Rick could get involved in everything
that his other two brothers got involved in,
that he was just like them.
It's just that he couldn't do it on his own.
So we found ways of doing it with him.
Yeah.
Well, then one story I read about was when they would wheel
him around in hockey games.
Is that right?
And he'd be the goalkeeper?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, he used to love that because we live right on the lake.
And like I said, we'd play hockey out there in the lake.
And we'd make him the goalkeeper.
And he used to get a piece of plywood
and put it in front of the neck so they couldn't shoot.
He would hit him in the back.
Brilliant.
Well, going to your military career,
so what was your main function there?
And then how did you handle transitioning out?
Something I ask a lot of the members of the military
that get on the show.
Well, I started as an enlisted man in the military.
And I really enjoyed it.
I loved being involved in the military.
And like I said, I spent 25 years in Edmonton
that I ended up retiring from the military.
And I was able to take with me in a lot of different things
that I did when I was in the military and stuff like that.
But I really enjoyed it.
I'm just so happy that I was able to be part of the military
in the United States.
Absolutely.
And did you have any struggles, though, when you left?
Because I know some people, when they leave the fire service,
the police service, the military, that transition period
is a little rough because they've always identified
as a soldier, an airman.
So what was it like when you retired out?
Were there any negative sides?
Or was it just a positive element that you had to be with him?
It was very positive.
It was very positive because I met a lot of people.
And we go along together.
And as a matter of fact, every three months,
like six or seven of us, we get together every month
and go out to have lunch and talk about the old times
and what we did when we were in the military.
Brilliant.
And matter of fact, in the summertime, I have them come
down here on the lake.
And matter of fact, I used to have a restaurant
that I bought on the lake.
And what we do now is we come down and they order the food
that they want to have.
And then we go out on a boat.
Naturally, these people want a beer or two.
And Kathy, she's at home here.
And we get out on the lake and we get about halfway
through the lake on the boat.
And we call Kathy up and she orders the food
from the restaurant.
And then we come back and we come up on the deck here.
And then we have to eat together and all that.
And we do that every year.
Brilliant.
Yeah, I think that's an area that I hear a lot of people
that are doing well.
They have another tribe, another group of people.
And obviously, I'm sure Team Hoyt is your group.
But then it's keeping in contact with what they did before.
So yeah, that annual lake trip sounds
like it would be amazing.
Yes, it really is.
Yeah, they just love it out here.
Yeah, I'm sure.
I mean, nature's so healing as well.
So adding that to it.
And some of them, especially if they live in the city,
they probably look forward to it every year.
Yes, they do.
Because none of them actually live on the lake except for me.
Right.
Now, just touching on this, because this is something
I've never really spoken to anyone about before.
So with Rick obviously being completely cognizant,
getting all these amazing educational achievements,
being an athlete, but having limitations physically
to be able to express himself, does he ever
have periods of mental health challenges?
And if so, how does he overcome it from his perspective?
Rick can come over everything.
It's just unbelievable to see.
Now, he lives all by himself.
But he's had a lot of problems in the last couple of years
with the flu and pneumonia.
But he's in a home now where he has his own room and all that.
And they just love him in there because he
has a computer that he talks with.
And they love to go in and be able to talk with him.
And they have a lot of company there.
And so he's one of the highlights of this place
that he is living now.
And fortunately, he's only like 12 miles away
from where I live.
And so I get to see him quite a bit.
But right now, with everything that's going on,
because of my age, I'm 80 years old,
they won't let me go visit him.
You follow me?
Oh, yes, sir.
Yeah.
If you look at what's going on, the older you get,
the more they want to set you out of the way
from everything else.
They're not letting anybody go to his home.
And right now, they are not letting anybody
go and visit him.
Yeah.
Now, my grandmother is 102.
And it's the same thing.
She's isolated in her home at the moment, too.
And I understand it.
There is a lot of sense to it.
But I think the sad byproduct is that it's keeping people away
from each other, people that love to spend time together.
Right.
Yeah.
But see, we do a lot with Rick, because where he's staying,
he has his own vehicle.
And so me and my youngest son, we go over and visit him
every weekend or wherever we can.
And we take him bowling, and we take him to the movies,
and all different things.
So we really have a good time.
And we're able to spend that with Rick and for him
to spend the time with us.
All right.
Well, I've got one more area I want to explore.
And then we'll do some wrap up questions
and obviously talk about Team Hoyt.
But you are 80.
You're still not only racing, but pushing Rick.
So adding a lot more exertion to what would normally
be a run, a bike, or a swim.
How have you managed to take care of your body
and perform so highly for so many years?
Yeah, I've been very, very fortunate.
But I keep myself in good shape.
I never give up and stuff like that.
But unfortunately, I was in an automobile accident.
And I was all by myself.
And what happened was I was driving home from the club
where I work out.
And I got halfway home.
And I fainted in the car.
And the car went off the road and crashed.
So I'm in the process of recovering from that right now.
And I had a heart issue and stuff like that.
So it was just unbelievable what happened.
Yeah.
Well, I'm sorry to hear about that.
But I'm glad that you were OK.
Because that's the thing people don't think about behind
the wheel is if we have a seizure,
if we have a heart arrhythmia, or a minor stroke.
I mean, all those things can lead to a very, very bad wreck
on the road.
So I'm glad that you were OK.
Yeah.
Well, I learned a lot from it too.
Because when this was happening, I could feel it.
And I was going off the road.
And if I had just turned the key off,
it never would have happened and stuff like that.
So I have learned a lot from it.
So I can talk to other people if it ever happens to them,
what's the best thing to do?
Absolutely.
All right, well, I'm going to spend some time exploring
the Hoyt Foundation.
So tell me how it started and then how people
can help contribute.
We started the Hoyt Foundation years and years ago.
And it's just getting bigger and bigger.
It's growing and growing.
I think I told you we got eight different states in the United
States.
And matter of fact, I got a call from Russia.
And they want to start a Team Hoyt over there.
And they're building Team Hoyt running chairs now.
And Russia is buying the Team Hoyt running chairs
and competing.
And Ireland is an other one.
They're unbelievable, these different countries
that want to get involved in what Rick and I are doing.
As you can see, it's getting bigger and bigger
in the United States.
And I think it's going to get bigger and bigger
in all these other states.
Rick and I have competed in Ironman triathlons in Canada,
in Germany, in Japan.
And we went to El Salvador when we were at war.
Now, all these races we do, it's just Rick and I. We go out
and we call up and we make our own arrangements
and to compete in all these races all over the world.
We don't have anybody out there to do it for us.
So we do everything ourselves.
I'm sorry, Kathy just said she does it.
She does.
Julie noted.
She does.
She makes, you know, she calls all of these visitors
and stuff and sets everything up.
Yeah.
If it wasn't for her, we probably
wouldn't be out there doing all this stuff.
Yeah, so it's a team, the three of you.
Like she said, we do it running.
And she does all the work.
So how can people contribute?
So let me just kind of backtrack.
So basically what you guys are doing,
obviously you guys are racing, but you're also
enabling other families with family members that
are affected to also be able to race now.
Is that correct?
That is exactly correct, yes.
Yes.
And the building team, we run the chairs
and we get all these different families
from all different states.
And we compete in different races at different times.
And a lot of times now, they're starting
to spread out with all these different states.
And they'll come and compete in different states
so we can all get together and compete together.
And I just feel it's going to get larger and larger
as the years go on.
If people donate, they're basically
helping you guys to make the chairs and organize the races
and get more people involved.
Is that right?
Yes, but most of the people, they have to buy the chairs.
We try to help them out, but we can't help all the people out
as far as paying.
Because we don't make the chairs.
The people that make them call them the team
Hoyt running chairs.
But they're doing that and they can't do it for nothing.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we don't make any money off of anything.
And where can people find Team Hoyt online?
We got our own website.
It's a big website, teamhoyt.com.
Brilliant.
And I will put the link to that on the web page
that goes with this episode.
Well, Dick, you guys also wrote a book, It's Only a Mountain.
So tell me about that experience.
That was unbelievable, because I'm not
one of those guys that write books and stuff like that.
But I met a guy that was a runner and stuff like that
down in Florida.
So he came up here and we ran some races together.
And then I went down and visited him in Florida.
And so we were able to write that book.
But since then, Rick has written a couple of books, too.
So we get a lot of books and we do have DVDs out
that are very powerful that a lot of people buy and use
to inspire and motivate themselves to get out there
doing what Rick and I are doing.
Yeah, well, I can tell you right now,
one of the videos that went around social media
when I was first made aware of you guys
was incredibly inspirational, absolutely inspirational.
So I can imagine that the books and the DVDs
would really light a fire up a lot of our rear ends.
So I'll make sure that I put all those on the website as well.
Right, that would be awesome.
Brilliant.
All right, well, then one more question before I just
make sure we know where we can find you online.
What do you do to decompress when you're not racing?
Is there something else that you love to do?
Yes, I go to the gym a lot, because I love to go to the gym
and I love to work out.
I love to keep my body in condition
so I can go anything and do anything
that I want to do at any time.
I've had that little problem, like I said,
with the automobile accident.
But hopefully within the next couple of at least another month
or so I can get out and start running again.
The doctors did say that I will be back running and stuff.
I don't doubt it for a second.
Now, that just meant this one thing
that I meant to ask you earlier as well.
Is there anything in your childhood
or even your earlier military training
that you attribute to your mental toughness?
Because, of course, you were physically
able to do these races when it came to the point,
but the first race you did, you'd never run.
When you did your triathlon, you never swam.
So clearly there's a huge element of mental toughness.
Is there anything when you look back
that you attribute that to?
Well, I was one of 10 in a family.
And I got involved in everything when I was very young,
in the first grade and stuff like that.
I'd come home and I'd go out in the woods
and chop down trees and branches so we could have a fire going
in our furnace and stuff like that.
And when I was six years old, I used to go down and milk cows.
And I'd get $0.10 a day, and they'd
give me a little pint of milk to take home and stuff like that.
But I started at a very young age of getting involved
in a lot of things and starting to making money.
When I was 16 years old, I had all the money
that I could go out and buy a car and all of that stuff.
But I'm just one of those guys that
like to be out there working and do everything the hard way.
But I love doing it, and it keeps me in great shape.
And I get to meet a lot of great people.
Yeah, well, I mean, I just want to say thank you so much.
You and Rick have literally inspired,
I wouldn't say a nation, obviously the globe.
But I think as a parent, you've inspired me,
and I'm sure so many people listening as well,
because you refuse to let other people define
your love for your child.
And I think that's admirable.
And obviously, it's clearly paid huge dividends
in both your lives.
But I just, again, want to say thank you
for being so generous with your time and telling your story,
even amidst this bizarre time that we're in right now.
Right, yeah, yeah.
But a lot of things have happened.
Like we have a big statue down at the start
of the Boston Marathon of Rick and I.
It's just amazing that all these things that have happened,
that we've been able to do, and it's helping
so many other people.
People go down there just to see the statue
and have pictures taken.
And it's helping a lot of other families and stuff.
So we got the SB Award.
We got so many awards and everything else
throughout all these years.
And matter of fact, we were the USA Triathlon Hall of Fame
to Slash Arizona.
We're the first father and son team
to ever get it in the world.
And we're the first ones to do the Ironman Triathlon
in the world.
Yeah, it's a duo, yeah.
Amazing, absolutely amazing.
So, I mean, again, like I said,
you guys have been so inspirational
and all started from a 15-year-old boy saying,
daddy, I want to do a race.
So incredible.
Thank you so, so much.
I'm going to let you guys go,
because I know that this has been a little bit longer
than we talked about, but I really appreciate it.
And I will let you guys know when I put this out.
Well, I'd appreciate it.
I'd love to see a copy of it too.
It's awesome.
It's been great talking to you.
And I really appreciate talking to you
compared to a lot of other people I talk to.