'She is my heart and I am her legs': Devoted dad runs triathlon carrying his teenager daughter with cerebral palsy because she loves being outdoors

A devoted father has completed a triathlon carrying his 13-year-old cerebral palsy-afflicted daughter across land and through water so that she could complete the gruelling event.
Rick van Beek's feat of endurance and show of love for his daughter Madison have led many to call the man from Byron Center, Michigan the 'father of the century'.
But it is not the first race of its kind for van Beek, who said he has participated in more than 70 events, including half-marathons, triathlons and other outdoor races, as part of 'Team Maddy'.

'Everybody prays that their children are healthy and for eight years I still wished that she had been a healthy child, but if she wouldn't have been like she is then we wouldn't be the people that we are today.'

'She functions like a three-month-old, and one of the very few things that we know she enjoys is being outside, being in the water, feeling the breeze in her hair and in her face,' he said.