Introduction

Many of you know Cady, my five year old daughter. Cady was born with cerebral palsy (CP) because her umbilical cord was tied in a knot and deprived her brain oxygen. She spent her first six weeks of life in the hospital and has periodic return visits for miscellaneous health complications. Ask anyone though – especially her teachers and her nurse, Deb, and they’ll tell you she has spunk and intelligence. As another child once put it, ‘she’s trapped inside a body that won’t work’.

On her second birthday, we took Cady to Duke University for an umbilical cord blood reinfusion – a pilot program. The hope was that the stem cells from her own banked cord blood could migrate towards damaged areas of her brain and perhaps regenerate or repair the area. Thanks once again to everyone who helped make that trip possible – we had to raise a considerable amount of money. Although she has made quite a bit of progress since then, Cady continues to have to eat via feeding tube, still cannot speak, and cannot yet stand or walk unassisted. We still hope for the best for her.

Thanks to my brother-in-law, Chris, I recently read about a father who has been helping his disabled son participate in sports for over 30 years – Dick Hoyt (see the link here to Team Hoyt: http://www.teamhoyt.com/). This is a guy, now in his seventies, who has run well over 1,000 races and triathlons with his son Rick: when running, he pushes Rick in a race wheelchair; when swimming, Rick lays in a raft and Dick pulls him; and when cycling, Rick sits on a specially-made seat at the front of their race bike. Seriously?! Who commits to doing that? Dick Hoyt, that's who. Rick says that when he’s out there with his dad he feels like his disabilities disappear. There are others I'm finding out there who are doing similar activities.

Well, I have been so incredibly inspired by the Hoyt's tenacity and determination that I’ve set out to at least run with Cady. She's only about forty pounds and the jogging stroller is pretty easy to push (except up the hills!). I don’t aspire to be like Mr. Hoyt per se, but I have already started to experience the rewards of having Cady participate in a sport with me. I don’t yet know exactly how she feels about it, but she smiles and kicks her legs when we’re out there and I think that means she likes it. I ask her each time we go out and I think she tries to tell me 'yeah'.

I’ve started this blog to track our running progress. We’ll be running a couple times per week and I’m starting  to find races that I can register us for. I’ll post pictures and will write here regularly. I'll ask my wife, and English major and writer, not to critique my writing too harshly. I encourage any of you runners and/or supporters out there to chime in whenever something strikes you. If if you like this blog, tell others about it. Our first official race is the 2012 Falmouth Road Race. We had to get our race number through the Easter Seals and consequently will be trying to raise some money for that charity. I'll post something about that later.

I also intend this blog to be a place where others with similar circumstances can go for encouragement and support. Having a disabled family member is hard work. Mr. Hoyt’s motto is “Yes you can!” I like that. Although I view myself as being very self-motivated, we can all use some encouragement and I hope that Cady and I can encourage others to do whatever they can to give their physically challenged loved ones as normal a life possible. More than anyone else, I hope my other children grow up with positive, 'can do' attitudes. So much in life, like a race, is simply mind over matter. We can all accomplish great things and overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges if we just commit to it.

So, stay tuned. And if you happen to know my brother-in-law and good friend, Chris, thank him for getting this going and tell him to get his running shoes on and his butt out the door!