The Father Who Never Stopped Running

In 1977, Rick Hoyt told his father Dick something that changed both their lives. Rick, born with cerebral palsy and unable to walk or speak without assistive technology, had just finished a charity road race with his dad pushing his wheelchair. That night, using his special computer, Rick typed five words: "Dad, when I'm running, it feels like I'm not disabled."

Dick Hoyt was not a runner. He was a retired lieutenant colonel with no athletic training. But his son had felt something — freedom, dignity, belonging — and that was enough. Dick started training.

Over the next four decades, Team Hoyt completed more than 1,100 endurance events together. Dick pushed Rick's wheelchair through 32 Boston Marathons. He pulled him in a dinghy across open water and pedaled him on a custom bicycle seat through six Ironman triathlons — 140.6 miles of swimming, biking, and running, carrying his son every step of the way.

No one asked Dick Hoyt to do this. No contract required it. He did it because love does not calculate the cost. Love sees what the beloved needs and moves toward it, even when the road is 26.2 miles long and your legs are burning.

The Apostle Paul wrote that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Dick Hoyt made that verse visible on every racecourse he entered.

The God who carries you is not tired of the race. He is not looking for an exit. He runs because you are in the chair, and His love will cross every finish line.