Fathers considering a victory lap after a day of accolades may not want to read this story . I did, and I now hold my manhood cheaper than I did even this morning.

It is the tale of Dick Hoyt, the father of a severely disabled son whom, it was believed, was effectively brain dead from a birth injury.  The boy was 100% incommunicado. But at age 11, Rick Hoyt’s parents broke through to him and it turned out that a lot was going on inside Rick’s head. Rick’s first words typed with a special contraption onto a keyboard, “Go Bruins!”

Dick Hoyt began to run with his son, and one day the boy typed “Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn’t disabled.”  That was all Mr. Hoyt needed to hear.  By 2009, Dick and Rick had run 85 Marathons and 212 Triathlons together.

It is a truly amazing story, and one worth recalling on Father’s Day. Even if it makes the rest of us dads feel like duds.