Shoes & Gear Boston Marathon Nutrition - Weight Loss. CBS Boston first broke the news of Hoyt’s death and reported he died in his sleep after experiencing recent health problems.
After their first run together from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, to Boylston Street in Boston in 1980, the Hoyts became famous in the region and beyond for their athletic feats, and together they inspired people with disabilities and their families around the world.
Rick Hoyt, now 59, was born with a severe form of cerebral palsy after complications during childbirth cut off the oxygen supply to his brain. He is unable to speak and his head and knees are the only parts of his body he can move voluntarily.
Communicating with the help of a special computer, Rick told his father in 1977 that he wanted them to do a five-mile road race together in Westfield, Massachusetts. Dick, who wasn’t a runner at the time, pushed his son and they ran the entire distance, although they came in next to last.
After the race, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”
That set off their series of athletic feats. They did hundreds of endurance events, from marathons to six Ironman triathlons, Rick in a boat tethered to Dick by a bungee cord for the swim portion.
Dave McGillivray, the race director of the Boston Marathon, recalls how he first met Dick Hoyt during the Falmouth Road Race in the late 1970s.
“This gentleman runs up next to me pushing a boy in a wheelchair,” McGillivray said. “I did a double take. Then we started racing each other. In the back of my mind, I’m thinking, I can’t let a guy pushing his son in a wheelchair beat me. Then the son of a gun beat me.”
After the race, they got to talking. McGillivray said he directed triathlons and Hoyt should do a triathlon. Hoyt’s reply: “Well, only if I can do it with Rick.”
The Hoyts finished their fastest Boston together (2:48:51) in 1986, when Dick was 45. Their overall personal best, according to the Team Hoyt website, was 2:40:47 from the 1992 Marine Corps Marathon.
The two founded the Hoyt Foundation in 1989 to help young people with disabilities through all facets of daily life, including sports.
Tom Grilk, now the CEO of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA), first met the Hoyts when he was a finish-line announcer at the Boston Marathon in the early 1980s. It didn’t take long for them to become famous after their first run at Boston.
“Poeple have asked me, what would it be like when you would see them coming,” Grilk told Runner’s World. “Long before you saw them, you heard the crowd reacting to them when they came along. It was a roar unlike any other. A roar that would come across the landscape. There was something different about it.”
Team Hoyt may have been inspirational to many, but that was never Dick Hoyt’s intent.
“In his human performance he was tough,” Grilk said. “As a gentleman he was quiet. He never sought out opportunities to talk about himself. He was there to be with his son, do something good with him and for him.”
In 2013, a bronze statute of the father and son was installed near the Boston Marathon starting line in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Their last run at Boston was in 2014, when Dick was 72, and they finished in 7:37:33. The next year family friend Bryan Lyons, and a Best Running Shoes 2025, Team Hoyt Honored With Statue at Boston Marathon. Shoes & Gear Dick Hoyt, Part of Legendary Boston Marathon Duo, Dies at 80.
Rick missed the 2019 Boston Marathon with pnuemonia, and the 2020 edition of the race was replaced by a virtual run.
In addition to Rick, Dick Hoyt is survived by a longtime companion, Kathy Sullivan-Boyer, sons Rob and Russ, and grandchildren.
Dick Hoyt, Part of Legendary Boston Marathon Duo, Dies at 80 is a writer and editor living in Eugene, Oregon, and her stories about the sport, its trends, and fascinating individuals have appeared in Runner’s World since 2005. She is the author of two popular fitness books, Run Your Butt Off! and Walk Your Butt Off!
