recognized by president obama in thursday's memorial service. >> the words of dick hoyt who has pushed his disabled son, rickwe can't let something like this stop us. >> and the hoyts will not. dick and rick join us this morning. nice to have both of you with us. >> good morning. we're happy to be here. >> dick, between being mentioned on thursday by the president, of course, being at fenway as well for a very emotional red sox game, this has been quite a week for you. tell us a little bit about what that's been like. >> well, it's been very hectic really. it started off kind of -- it started off really well. you know, we had our 32 runners running for our foundation, for the boston marathon. we had our own -- we drove out to hartington to start up a marathon, and we have the life size statue that's there, and we were able to get the team off to get shots of all that, and it was a beautiful day. then the marathon started off great, and we were starting to have a great run. matter of fact, we were ahead of last year's team, and then i saw police activity. i asked a police officer what was going on, and told m

father dick hoyt runs, pushing his son, rick hoyt.n monday, they had been honored enth a statue before beginning their 31st boston marathon. local cops and federal officials also took the field to be honored, and then the national anthem. bo what has become a new boston tradition, the anthem was sung by the crowd. >> ♪ oh, say does that star- spangled banner yet wave... ♪ > reporter: neil diamond flew in to perform the team's signature song, "sweet caroline," in the eighth inning. >> ♪ oh, oh, oh. >> ♪ good times never seemed so good. ♪ >> ♪ so good! so good! so good! ♪ >> reporter: the red sox won the game 4-3 over the kansas city royals. jim, those boston jerseys, usually worn by the team on away games, will be auctioned off for a fund to help the bombing victims. >> axelrod: "sweet caroline" has never been sweeter. elaine, thank you. later, how video forensics helped identify the bombing suspects. a woman who raced in boston heads to london's marathon with a message of hope. and texans dealing with their own trauma after a plant ex

and i think this picture here, dick and rick hoyt, exemplify that better than about anything else. when he was 37, dick hoyt -- the man pushing the wheelchair -- entered a five-mile race with his wheelchair-bound son rick. he was a former air force officer, flabby -- totally makes sense. [laughter] sorry about that. i couldn't resist, i mean, i was a marine. he didn't know how he was going to run five miles. after all, the air force probably hadn't made him do that befo. [laughter] he certainly didn't know how he was going to do that pushing his son in a wheelchair. but he did finish. in fact, he finished next to last. and for an hour after the race, he lay on the floor gasping. he had no idea how he had managed to finish, and he was sure that his short and unhappy racing career was over. but during that hour his son rick typed out a message with his head. that was the only body part he could move. took him an hour to type it, and here's what he typed. dad, when i am running, i feel like i'm not even handicapped. and since that time dick and rick have run over 300 endurance races,

over the years, many marathon runners have drawn inspiration from dick and rick hoyt, the father ande more than 30 times. the sta the uof the pair was unveiled in the days leading up to the race. and we have heard from the hoyts on their facebook page. they say everyone on their team is okay. they say, though, to please, let us pray for all the victims and their families. so vanna? >> thank you. mike lua is an author and columnist at "the new york daily news." good morning to you. >> good morning, savannah. >> this is hitting the heart of boston in so many ways, and the soul and spirit of the city. >> anybody who has ever attended this race, anybody who has ever spent time in boston and i went to college there, my two sons have gone to school there, i have a son at boston college there this becomes personal for them. unless you've ever attended, it's impossible to describe, this is the best day of the year. maybe when a sports team wins a championship it feels better. this is a celebration you think on this day of everything that's good in the world. all you see are happy people. tir

in the words of dick hoyt who pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston marathons, we can't let something like this stop us! this doesn't stop us! and that's what you've taught us, boston. that's what you've reminded us. to push on. to percent severe. to not grow weary. to not get faint, even when it hurts, even when our heartaches, we summon the strength that maybe we didn't even know have and we carry on, we finish the race. we finish the race. and we do that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger has a cup of water, around the bend somebody's there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when we think that we've hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. that's why the perpetrators of such senseless violence, these small stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that makes them important, that's what they don't understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superfi

we will finish the race. [ applause ] in the words of dick hoyt who pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston marathons, we can't let something like this stop us. this doesn't stop us. and that's what you've taught us, boston. that's what you've reminded us, to push on. to persevere, to not grow wary, to not get faint even when it hurts, even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe we didn't even know we had. and we carry on. we finish the race. we finish the race. and we do that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger has a cup of water. around the bend somebody's there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when we think that we hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. [ applause ] and that's what the perpetrators of such senseless violence, these small stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that makes them important, that's what they don't understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for countr

in the words of dick hoyt, who has pushed his disabled son, rick, in 31 boston marathon, we can't let something like this stop us. this doesn't stop us. that's what you've taught us, boston. that's what you've reminded us. to push on. to persevere. to not grow weary. to not get faint. even when it hurts. even when our heart aches. we respond the strength that maybe we didn't even know we had and we carry on. we finish the race. we finish the race and we do that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend, a stranger has a cup of water. around the bend, somebody is there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when we think that we've hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. >> that's what the perpetrators of such senseless violence. these small, stunted individuals, who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that paks them important. that's what they don't understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other. our love for country, our common creed that cuts across what

[applause] in the words of dick hoyt who pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston mayor o marathons,t something like this stop us. [applause] >> this doesn't stop us. [applause] >> that's what you've taught us, boston, that's what you've reminded us, to push on, to persevere, to not grow weary, to not get faint, even when it hurts, even when our heartaches we summon the strength that maybe we didn't even know we had and we carry on, we finish the race. [applause] >> we finish the race and we do that because of who we are, and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger has a cup of water. around the bends somebody is there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when we think that we've hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. [applause] >> and that's what the perpetrators of such seven les seven less violence, these small, stunted individuals, who would destroy instead of build and somehow think that makes them look information, that's what they don't understand, our faith in each other, our love for

faug >> and the worst of dick hoyt who pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston marathons we cannotuse) this does not stop us! >> that is what you taught us wh us austausboston . >> to persevere, to not get fanged even when it hurts, even with our hearts ache we summon the strength that maybe we did not know we had a and we carry on, we finished the race! >> (cheers and applause) we finished the race and we do that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend a stranger had a cup of water, around the bend someone is there to boost our spirit. >> on the toughest mile when we think we hit a wall someone will be there to cheer us on and pick up if we fall. we know that! >> (cheers and applause) that is what the perpetrators, senseless violence, a small stunted individuals who would destroy instead of building and they somehow that makes them important. that is what they do not understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other and country, our common creed that cut across what ever superficial differences that may be that as our power.

[applause] in the words of dick hoyt, who has pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston marathons, wething like this stop us. this does not stop us. us, is what you taught boston. that is what you are reminded us. persevere, to not even when it hurts, even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe we did not even know we had, and we carry on. we finished the race. , and we dohe race that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere aune bd, a stranger has a cup of water. around the bend, somebody is there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when hit the that we have wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. [applause] that is what the perpetrators of such senseless violence, these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and thinks somehow that makes them important -- that is what they don't understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed thatuts across whatever superficial differences there ma b tt is our power. that i

[applause] in the words of dick hoyt, who has pushed his disabled son rick in 31 boston marathons, we this does not stop us. that is what you taught us, boston. that is what you have reminded us. push on, to persevere, to not grow weary, even when it hurts, even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe we did not even know we had, and we carry on. we finished the race. we finish the race, and we do that because of who we are. and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend, a stranger has a cup of water. around the bend, somebody is there to boost our spirits. on that toughest mile, just when we think that we have hit the wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. we know that. [applause] that is what the perpetrators of such senseless violence who would destroy instead of build and thinks somehow that them important t is they don't understand. our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be, that is our power. that is our stre

hoyt is over 70 years old. he ran in marathons and triathalons with his son rick in toe.ball, football, basketball. but then you got married, you had rick. it wasn't until you were 40, at rick's urging, that you started this whole race thing. what did he say to you? >> that's correct. rick was attending a basketball game. rick communicates with a computer and he has a said switch. he controls it. and so he went to a basketball game and he told me all about this basketball player at westfield state college that was in an accident and was paralyzed from the waist down and they're going to have this charity road race to help raise money to help pay medical bills. rick came home from the game. he told me all about it and he said, dad, i have to do something for him. i want to let him know that life goes on even though he's paralyzed. i want to run in the race. at the time, i was 40 years old. i was not a runner. i used to run maybe three times a week, a mile each time, to keep my weight down. all we had was a wheelchair which was prescription form fit to do rick's body. we ha