This marked the 31st Boston Marathon for Rick and Dick Hoyt.
President Obama walks up the steps of the altar to speak at an interfaith healing service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, for victims of Monday's Boston Marathon explosions.
BOSTON - Team Hoyt, the father-and-son running team of Dick and Rick Hoyt, were praised by President Obama in his speech at the memorial service for being an example of the spirit which will keep the Boston Marathon on track.
The president referred to the Hoyts as he delivered his message to those responsible, saying, “We’ll keep going. We will finish the race. In the words of Dick Hoyt, who’s pushed his disabled son, Rick, in 31 Boston Marathons – ‘We can’t let something like this stop us.’ This doesn’t stop us. “
Dick Hoyt, a retired member of the Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing, of Holland, regularly pushes son, Rick, of Sturbridge, in a wheelchair in marathons and triathlons around the world, carrying a message of perseverance.
The Hoyts were among the runners who had to abandon the marathon about a mile short of the finish line when Monday’s bombs exploded on Boylston Street.
