World's Strongest Dad

Dear all fathers,
Read the piece below and be inspired.
Sincerely,
Bapak

By: Rick Reilly of fatherville.com

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots.

But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick's also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old.

"Put him in an institution."

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?

"Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own?" "No way," he says. Dick does it purely for "the awesome feeling" he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick finished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992 -- only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

"No question about it," Rick types. "My dad is the Father of the Century."

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. "If you hadn't been in such great shape," one doctor told him, "you probably would've died 15 years ago.

"So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together.

They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

"The thing I'd most like," Rick types, "is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once."

Ambik Makan

Kami selalu refer majlis bertandang as pegi ambik makan. How crude, right? Anyway, rumah Hasri di sekitar Kampar jugak. Tak jadi hal. Sehari selepas majlis kat rumah perempuan kamipun pergi ambik makan. Gambar tak banyak sangat ... nantilah kalau Nurul atau Fudhail boleh e-mail, we feature more of it.

Me and my Asma

Yeay! dapat makan kat meja pengantin. The last time we makan at a meja pengantin was at our own wedding almost 14 years ago.

Arissa, Nurul, Aisyah, Awin, Asma and Alia.

Majlis Resepsi Ana & Hasri

Majlis reception Ana dan Hasri berlangsung meriah pada tanggal June 2 2007. Majlis berjalan lancar. Semua kaum keluarga sama-sama menyumbang tenaga bagi memastikan semuanya baik-baik belaka. Dan alhamdulillah, semuanya baik-baik belaka. Tetamu lebih 1,000 orang - by our standard ramai tuuu.Penat tetapi berbaloi.

Pasangan pengangtin bersama-sama Pak Nyah dan Mak Nyah. Nanti Julai, kita berkampung di Cheras pulak lah ye.

Santapan Bersama

Raja Sehari dan Ratu Sehari.

Di Persada Cinta

Dengan iringan gamelan, perarakan masuk Pengantin berlangsung penuh adat Melayu

Yeay! Sudah sampai.

Bersama Mak pengantin. Mertua dan menantu mengajar di satu sekolah.

Dengan Kak Faizah (selamat bertugas Faizah!)

Pengantin bersama Kak Zai dan Nisah

Bersama keluarga Pak Lan (minus Pak Lan dan Shibli). Shadilia, Saliha, Suhail, Kak Jah, Safia dan Shakira.

Cousins Faizah dan Shadilia. Baru graduate dan sudah bekerja. dan tak lama lagi Shadilia akan berangkat ke UK. InsyaAllah.

Mak Kampar. Jadi host cucu dia kahwin. Mak datang ke dewan, duduk depan pintu dewan menyambut tetamu, lepas tu balik. Tak masuk dewan pun, boleh?

Star of the Show. Kak Encik dengan wajiknya.

Hulubalang majlis - Hadim ngan Farid.

Pembawa Sirih Junjung Asma dan Arissa (with Nizam yang enter frame)

Izzati yang rendah bawak tepak sirih manakala Aisyah dan Alia jadi pengapit. (er, macam tugas2 Akbar Abidin jer kan?)

Petugas meja urusetia (jangan main2) - Shadilia, Suhail dan Nisah.

Tekun menyambut tetamu dan menghulur cenderhati ialah Safia, Shida dan Leha.

Getting ready for the show.

The ladies in waiting posing for the camera.

Kak Encik, Yan, Hadim dan Farid

Peace to the Pengantin from Pak Cik Aa and Alia

Me and my baby girl.

Yan with Kak Yah, Lina and her daughters.

Meja VIP. Dapat frame gambar dari Ikea you.

Bunga kat pintu gerbang. Tak tau ler pulak kenapa Fudhail amik gambar ni.

Majlis Ijab Kabul

Alhamdullilah, Majlis Akad Nikah Ana & Hasri berjalan lancar. But of course, malam majlis tentunya ada drama drama kecil seperti tetiba the appointed saksi tak datang dan both Kak and me have to rush to his place to remind him only to be told that he has been hospitalised for a week. Nasib baik boleh ganti ngan orang lain. And sesi menunggu untuk set-up pelamin untuk majlis di dewan keesokan harinya yang hanya tiba pukul 4 pagi.
Apapun, majlis tetap maintain meriah. Saudara mara ramai yang tiba malam tu especially dari Johor. Malam (ker pagi?) tu kami tidur dengan pintu-pintu rumah terbuka luas sebab rumah dah sesak padat dengan manusia. At around 3pm, I managed to find a spot depan pintu depan sebelah Arissa. Yan was busy with her kek tiga tingkat sampai ler ke pagi.

Majlis Makan Malam - gembira dan lega sebab dah selesai. Makan pun tak berapa selera...

Cikgu Hasri. The Groom. Adik2 ipar masih panggil cikgu ker? Hari tu a day after the reception, I still heard Nurul called out cikgu... ha ha , abang ipar tu weh!

Majlis berinai. Giliran Hasri.

Dinner table for the Pengantin. Idea Yan (kena beritahu nih). Kak Encik and Kak La (Yan's cousins) dah siap tempah Yan untuk set-up table macam ni untuk majlis dia orang nanti - Kak La untuk majlis adak perempuannya pada Ogos nanti dan Kak Encik untuk majlis Hadim Disember nanti.

Ana and Kak zai, Kak Jah, Nisah , Safia dan Leha.

Majlis Menyarung Cincin

Ana di atas Pelamin. Selamat semuanya. Alhamdullilah.

Majlis nikah berlangsung di surau berdekatan. Ana with Faizah lending her hand to control her nerves.

Dengan sekali lafaz, anak orang selamat jadi isteri orang. Semoga berbahagia ke anak cucu.

The Pelamins

Kalau di majlis kahwin Orang Melayu tak sah kalau tak da pelamin. Tambah-tambah musim sekarang ni. Untuk majlis kahwin our anak saudara Ana and Hasri the other day, siap ada dua biji pelamin lagi. Satu di rumah dan satu di dewan.
Dah dah kenduri kahwin anak saudara sendiri, makanya kami rasa pelamin-pelaminnya cantik sekali.

Ini pelamin di rumah Kak. Yan suruh tulis yang pelamin ini idea dia. Sememangnya pelamin ini buatan sendiri. Kami pinjam perkakasnya dari kawan Kak yang dah pencen business andam-mengandam ni. Hampir seminggu jugaklah Yan ngan kakak dia dok design and decorate this pelamin. Hasilnya, memang boleh dibanggakan. Malahan empunya pelamin ini pun impress katanya.

Yang ini tampak lebih grand maklumlah di dalam dewan. Yang memasangnya pun expert. Kami tak campur tangan langsung. Tapi pelamin ni dipasang pukul 4.00pagi. Janjinya pelamin akan dipasang selepas majlis menikah. Tapi tunggu punya tunggu depa-depa ni tak jugak kunjung tiba. I waited until pukul 2.30pagi lepas tu terus tertidor. Depa called kak at 3.45am. Masa tu Yan tengah sibuk menghias kek. Cousin Yan, Kitat(apa punya nama da) pulak dok sibuk pot pet pot pet depan Yan. Orang lain lama dah pergi Bidor. Kak akhirnya pergi ke dewan pepagi buta tu sorang-sorang diri. Tak sedar langsung, tahu2 Kak dah balik dlm pukul 6 pagi. Baru selesai dipasang.