Colleen DeReuck took the overall win and the USATF 25K Championship.
I'd planned to attend the Fifth Third River Bank Run as a spectator, soak up the ambiance and socialize with new and old friends. That was until an invitation was offered to ride the press truck.

I decided doing so would be at least as cool as hanging around the finish, plus it would be my first time on a lead vehicle. Weather race week was funky nationwide and the local forecast was for liquid sunshine Friday and Saturday.

Although a soggy race seemed inevitable, it rained some on Friday before going dry all night long. It remained dry during my 44-minute run Saturday morning where I saw deer along 52nd Street SW near Palmer Park in Wyoming.

Driving downtown I thought it possible the races might dodge a wet- weather bullet. To be safe, I grabbed an umbrella on my way to the start. This was a good move, as it began drizzling 30 minutes before "showtime." I was one of only two on the press truck with an umbrella, which made me a favorite of four women, including new Crim race director Deb Kiertzner, who all huddled with me.

I knew the wheelchair athletes would hate the rain because it makes it difficult to push on their rims. As the National Championship 25K got under way, the drizzle turned to a steady rain, soaking all minus protection.

After a mile the race up front was already taking shape. By two miles, split in 9:20, Kenyans Julius Kibet, Simon Wangai, Wesley Ochoro, new master and U.S. citizen Mbarak Hussein, and Brian Sell of Team Hansons had eased away from from a chasing pack of about 20 guys. The top dogs continuted hammering away through three miles in 14:05, with Hussein dropping back and the chase pack out of sight.

Kibet, Wangai and Ochoro dropped Sell before four miles, sailing along at a furious pace. With a series of encouraging races in 2005, Brian was clearly running with a sense of confidence and purpose.

The rain continued as the leaders cruised on Indian Mounds Drive beside the Grand River. Ochoro was dropped before six miles, reached in 28:05. With the twists and turns of the road, it was hard to tell where Ochoro and Sell were. Wangai and Kibet ran shoulder-to-shoulder across the river and turned onto Butterworth Drive for the return trip into town.

The course had been relatively flat, albeit damp, as it dipped down Veterans Memorial Drive. The two leaders zipped past halfway in 36:22, world-record pace. Dang, they were haulin' at 4:40 per mile (even a pace of 4:40 per kilometer is 7:30 per mile, a healthy effort).

Wangai and Kibet turned into the hills, but that did little to slow them down as they raced in lockstep past 10 miles in 47:10. The next mile, which reached the highest point on the course, was their slowest, five minutes flat. The pair flew downhill, step for quickening step, covering the 12th mile in 4:35.

In the distance we could see Ochoro had about 15 seconds on the steady-running Sell, and we wondered whether the gap would close. The leaders raced together into the city and finally the rain subsided.

Beginning at John Ball Zoo the route wound this way and that, but the two Kenyans remained as one. They'd lost some time to world-record pace, but were still smokin'. Our truck pulled away at 13 1/2 miles, leaving the pundits to ponder the outcome.

Hopping off the truck, I trotted back on the course and cheered Wangai as he sped past. He'd opened a sizable gap in short order, as Kibet followed 100 yards back. A minute and a half later, Ochoro emerged with a 50-yard lead on Sell.

Wangai's winning time was a course record and the fourth-fastest 25K ever. In fourth, Sell's time was good for sixth-fastest American ever and his first National Championship.

In fifth and 10th came the first two masters runners, Hussein and Paul Aufdemberge of Redford. Hussein broke the old American record by 1:26, and Aufdemberge just missed the standard while notching another solid race in his first five months as a masters runner. (Paul ran an American 40-44 10,000-meters track record 30:04 at Hillsdale College April 29.)

"I felt pretty good about my race, though it pales in comparison to the top guys," Paul said later. "The group I was in went out as conservatively as the front group went out aggressively. We stayed close to five-minute miles through about 13 miles, when Clint (Verran) took off." (Verran, another Team Hansons member, finished seventh.)

Although I didn't get to see how Colleen DeReuck's race played out, her winning time says a lot. The 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathoner's 1:25:15 netted her the National Championship, broke the U.S. masters record by 4:32, and is the second-fastest American time ever. Her average pace of 5:30 per mile would have eclipsed U.S. masters records en route at 15K, 10 miles, 20K and the half-marathon! Yikes.

I'd last been to Grand Rapids in 1994 to run the River Bank 25K. The face of downtown had changed in 11 years, but the organization and conduct of all events has remained exceptional with attention to detail at every turn. Return trips will occur more regularly. MR