marathon Archives - The Baytown Project

Marathoner survives cardiac arrest to run another day

David Berkowitz — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 01:53:13 +0000

A veteran marathon runner, it was a shorter, 3,000-meter race that nearly cost Bob Botto his life.

“I have run 25 marathons and 76 ultra-marathons. As of Jan. 1, including all my races and training, I have run 30,875 miles. But it’s not the long distance that kills you. It’s the short distance.

“I was entered in a 3,000-meter race on June 9, 2012, at Rice University. I had no idea that anything was wrong with me. In January, I had won a U.S.A. Track and Field 100-kilometer race for my age. In February, I did the Rocky Raccoon 100-Mile Trail Run at Huntsville State Park. In March, I won a U.S.A. Track and Field 50-mile mountain race. In April, I ran the Relay for Life here in Baytown. In May, I ran in the Boxrox Marathon in central Texas in 95 degrees on rugged trails. So I survived all of that.

Doctors believe Bob Botto’s cardiac arrest was the result of a genetic predisposition.

“Then June 9 came, and I was lined up for 3,000 meters. I ran through the finish, then I started walking and cooling down. I don’t remember anything that happened after that. Nothing. I had collapsed and died. My heart was not beating for up to 50 minutes, is what the doctor said.

“John Bryant, a friend of mine on our ExxonMobil track team, was there within one minute to begin doing CPR. He continued until Station 33 arrived from Houston, and they used the paddles to get my heart beating again. My wife met me at the hospital. She felt my ankles and said there was a tiny, little heart beat there. That was about two hours later.

“The doctors decided to put me in a medical coma. By the sixth day, they disconnected the EEG monitor because there was no data coming out of it. On the seventh day, they asked my wife for permission to disconnect me from life support. What she said was, ‘If you do that, he’ll just be on his own.’ So they didn’t do it. And I woke up at 6 o’clock the very next morning.”

— Bob Botto, 67

He enjoys running for a cancer-fighting cause

David Berkowitz — Sat, 21 Jan 2017 01:25:04 +0000

Bob Botto runs for fun, but also for cancer research.

“I’ve been involved in Relay for Life since 1999. I showed up at the Lee College relay that year and ran a marathon just for fun. After that, I got hooked and started raising money. Every year I would raise more money and run more miles. I got up to 75 miles. It used to be a longer event, but now it lasts eight hours so I run 20 or 25 miles. I’ve raised as much as $25,000 for one relay. Overall, I believe I’ve raised about $160,000.

“Besides the fact that I enjoy running so much, the relay is important to me because my sister almost died from cancer. She had bone cancer when she was 14 years old. It was pretty touch and go for a while. They used immunotherapy, which in those days was a very experimental treatment, but it worked. Her leg had to be amputated above the knee, and she has an artificial limb. But the treatment worked. She’s alive today.

“When I run for that event I think about my sister and my mother-in-law, who had both breasts removed in 1977. She also had a form of leukemia when she died of old age at almost 96 years old. She lived until 2010. That’s a real survivor. She was so inspiring.”

— Bob Botto

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Marathon runner had to hang up his shoes

David Berkowitz — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 03:05:07 +0000

Marathon running was attractive to Mike Thorn, who would rather be active than watch others compete.

“I’m a person who likes to play a lot. I enjoy doing a lot of different things. Until about three years ago I trained for marathons. I’ve done 40 of them. At one time, I was in the top 2 percent of runners in the United States.

“One of the reasons I got into running is because I like to experience things. I don’t like just watching other people. I’d rather be doing it myself. I also like running because whatever you put into it, you’re the one who reaps the rewards or deals with the downs. In life there are a lot of things that are tied to other people’s performances. But with running it’s different. The only thing you really can’t control is the weather.

“I ran in high school, but not again until I was 39. I’d given up smoking and gained about 40 pounds, so I wanted to lose some weight. Eventually, I started competing in weekend runs, and I got hooked.

“I wish I could still do it. I hate seeing people run now because I enjoyed it so much. I guess I just ran too many races. It really takes a toll on your body as you get older. And once you stop, it’s hard to get the old joints going again.”

— Mike Thorn

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