I was reminded this week of Team Hoyt, the racing duo made up of Dick and his son Rick.
Dick and Rick ran a lot of races. A LOT. Over 1,000 events. 5Ks. 10Ks. Marathons. Triathlons. Ironman competitions. They even ran and biked across the United States. To say they loved racing is a serious understatement.
The unique part of their story, though, was only half of Team Hoyt could actually run. The father, Dick. Rick’s legs have never worked. He can’t speak either. At birth, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, depriving his brain of oxygen, and robbing his body of the ability to find balance and coordination. Doctors saw no road forward for his future. But Dick and his wife, Judy, disagreed. Rick couldn’t perform basic physical functions, but his mind was alive and alert. So they pushed forward, eventually seeing Rick graduate high school and college. But Rick had wanted more. He wanted to run.
So, when his son was 15, Dick loaded him into a three-wheeled racing chair, and Team Hoyt was born, participating in a five -mile fundraiser. From that point on, until his death in 2021, Dick did it all: lifted, pushed, ran, pedaled, and towed. Rick depended completely on his dad to do it all.
One of the unique aspects of their story (It’s Only a Mountain by Sam Nall) is the fact that before Rick’s request to participate in the five-miler,
Dick had never really been a runner. But he was a father. I like the way Max Lucado says it as he recounts the story of Team Hoyt:
We bring to the spiritual race what Rick Hoyt brings to the physical one. Our spiritual legs have no strength. Our morality has no muscle.
Our good deeds cannot carry us across the finish line. But God can. And God does for us what Dick did for Rick.
Rick knew what his body couldn’t get him to do, but he believed in his dad that Dick could accomplish it for him.
For God loved the world in this way:
He gave His one and only Son,
so that everyone who believes IN HIM
will not perish but have eternal life.
We bring what Rick brought.
God does what Dick did. Start to finish.
Anybody up for a run?