Big House Big Heart 5K

This afternoon I ran the Big House Big Heart 5K, so named because it finishes through the tunnel and across the 50-yard-line of Michigan Stadium (affectionately known as the Big House), after beginning just outside the stadium and then going up into Ann Arbor, before coming back down to the stadium. Today we were blessed with lovely conditions - 72-degree bright sunshine. I also ran last year's inaugural Big House Big Heart, and this year's course was slightly changed. I liked last year's a bit better, but this year's was very nice, too. Before I tore my hamstring last winter and then hurt my calf this summer, I had hoped to break 30 minutes, but I finished in 30:29 (by my watch). Still, this was a nice improvement over my 2007 time of 32:59, and a new personal record (PR) for me, as I had done a 5K last April at Gallup Park in 31:15. I was severely hemmed in numerous times by the large field (I heard there were 7000 some runners), and if not for this, I think I might well have challenged the half-hour mark. I hope to have a picture to post on here sometime in coming weeks.

Family reunion photo

At this last July's family reunion, a cousin photographed my nephew Ben, his father and my younger brother John (or "JB"), my wife Michelle, and JB's daughter Courtney.

The Borton family (July 2008)

Over the last 20 years, I have developed a very keen interest in genealogy and family history. Thus, I am very pleased each summer when the descendants of my Borton grandparents, Allen (from whom I get my name) and Libbie, hold a reunion. At the one this past July, a cousin snapped this picture. I am toward the left of the picture, in a red shirt, and my (short) wife Michelle is in a light blue top. My brother John is between us, in a darker blue shirt. My mother and sister, as well as my kids, were unfortunately unable to be there.

Another life

Before my accident, this photograph of my Olivet College Choir (I am in the tux, at the right) was used one year in the early nineteen nineties for the college's official Christmas card. I am grateful to have these good memories - but, my, it seems like long ago that I was functioning daily as "Dr. Borton"!

July 4

On the day before my daughter Christy's July 5 wedding in Colorado, I joined with about a dozen family members and members of the wedding party in running a 5K race there. And I was delighted to do the entire run side-by-side with Wes Loewen, father of the groom. Much later, I discovered that my wife Michelle had snapped this photo of Wes and me, unbeknownst to me at the time.

On September 30, 2007, I was happy to run the "Big House Big Heart" 5K, which finished through the tunnel and across the 50-yard-line of Michigan Stadium (affectionately known as the "Big House"). Running as part of Team Hope Clinic, I collected funds for a local nonprofit for which I have done volunteer work in the past. I look forward to doing the 2008 edition of the run this September 28, again as part of Team Hope Clinic.