Heroes Hall Of Fame Post #2

2.TEAM HOYT

I wish I would have thought to post this on Fathers Day because it really fits the holiday.  Our next hero or heroes I should say is Team Hoyt (click name for official site).  These guys are my personal favorite because they are truly epic!  Here are the highlights.  In 1962 Rick was born to Dick and Judy Hoyt, due to some complications he was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy.  Instead of letting him live in a hospital his parents decide to take him home and make sure he lived life to the fullest, which is already a hard task.  Soon they could tell that he was a very intelligent and capable young man and fought for him to be able to go to school (which later results in him getting a degree from Boston University in special education).
     In the spring of 1977 Rick hears about a 5 mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who was paralyzed and tells his dad that he wants to run it.  Dick was not the running type but out of love for his son he agrees to do it anyway.  Rick said that night that running made him feel like he wasn't handicapped.  Little did they know that this would start them on a crazy and inspirational ministry.  Now they travel all over the U.S running races and raising awareness for the Hoyt Foundation.  Putting their count to 1042 races in total as of February!  To include 6 Ironman Triathlons, 7 half Ironmans, and 68 Marathons (27 Boston Marathons).  I don't know about you but I can say from experience that running a Marathon is PAINFUL!!!!  I know I couldn't even do an Ironman.  This guy is 3 times my age and does all of these races while pushing his 110lbs son.  When swimming on the Triathlons he pulls him in a boat!  With that said I am willing to admit that he way more hard core than me.haha  When asked Dick said that his motivation is his son and every time he feels like stopping he just looks in the chair in front of him and keeps going.  If I could even be half the dad that he is I would feel pretty accomplished.haha  Which is why Team Hoyt is no doubt a hero in my book.  So check out their organization and testimony and ask yourself how you could better emulate their Father-Son relationship?

Challenge For The Month: Krispy Kreme Challenge

Ah yes!  The Krispy Kreme Challenge by far one of the grossest and most messed up ideas I have ever seen for a race.  I will probably regret EVER trying this but if anything it will make plenty of people laugh at my expense.  The real challenge is held in Raleigh NC and is designed to benefit a children's hospital.  But I will not be in the states for the next one so I decided to "recreate" one of my own.  The race rules are simple: run 2 miles, eat 1 dozen Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, then run 2 miles back.  You must do all of this within an hour and you cannot throw it up.....I was pretty confident up until I read the DO NOT throw up part.  I am not a teenager anymore and quite frankly even the thought of a single doughnut mid-race sounds like a bad idea, not to mention a dozen.  But either way I gave this thing my best shot.
         So!  With the assistance of my awesome co-workers Reynolds, Ira (his name is actually like 26 letters long but Ira is easier), and my lovely wife, we got together on a nice Saturday morning and grabbed up 3 dozen doughnuts.  We couldn't find anywhere on island that did Krispy Kreme so we had to go with Dunkin, which I will point out now was a BAD idea.  Fun health fact: 1 glazed Krispy Kreme has 217 cal, 1 Glazed Dunkin Doughnut has 290 cal.....you do the math.haha  Here is what happened......

As you can see we went in there confident and came out with our butts handed to us.  The first 2 doughnuts were AMAZING!  Nothing like ending a run with pure sugar, haha.  But when you get to about doughnut number 6 you start getting that dry mouth, hard to chew, just want to spit it out stage.  Once I hit 9, I was pretty sick, so 12 wasn't happening for me.  I will say that with a little bit of training (how do you train for a heart attack?!?!) and some practice it seems like a pretty doable task.  But I do not plan on ever trying this again or eating a doughnut for a little while.  Thanks for reading, check out the Favorite Organizations page before you leave, and don't eat doughnuts while running!