EAST GRAND RAPIDS (12/31/05) - It could have been worse for the 737 men, women and youngsters in the 22nd annual Wolverine Resolution Run.

It could have been as frigid and icy as past incarnations of the event. The mercury held steady at about 36 degrees at John Collins Park on the east shore of Reeds Lake the afternoon of the race. As entrants, many running behind due to a last-minute queue at late registration, streamed out of East Grand Rapids High School a little before 3 p.m., scheduled gun time, they slogged through slush and puddles left behind by the previous night's snow. But showers passing over the city cleared out as the crowd assembled behind the start/finish line along Lakeside Drive.

Despite, for many, a shortage of time for stretching and warmups, a light-hearted mood blanketed the crowd.

It could have been the unseasonable heat wave.

It could have been the number of entrants out for a good time in the off- season rather than out for a racing challenge. One masters speedster said it in a few words when asked in the first quarter-mile why he lagged with slower people.

"I'm doing a fun run."

The rolling contour of East Grand Rapids could have taken a little of the fun out of it for entrants primed for a racing challenge. The out-and-back four-mile course, altered from past years, took the crowd around the north end of Reeds Lake to the east shore, then back again, twice passing Waterfront and Remington parks, occasionally affording views across a skin of ice over the water.

Runners easily skirted patches of slush on the climbs but splashed through puddles at the bottom of downslopes. A net drop in the outward half meant a couple steep climbs, with a gentle finishing upslope, in the backward half.

Overall male winner Luke Chrusciel, 19, of Grandville, rolled over the course in 20:15 (5:04 per mile), 18 seconds speedier than runnerup Joel Klooster, 26, of Grand Rapids.

Overall female winner Camille Medema, 21, of Grand Rapids, rolled around the lake in 25:07 (6:17 per mile), 31 seconds faster than runnerup Jenny Millis, 22, of Lowell.

A spate of light rain came back after the lead runners finished, but hardly enough to dampen the spirits of men, women and youngsters still rolling along the course.

It could have been worse for me.

It could have been a reprise of my other two races in the lake's vicinity during the calendar year. As denizens of Tolkien's Middle Earth say, "Third time pays for all"; meaning, "If at first you don't succeed, and if again you don't succeed, you'll get a last chance to redeem yourself."

In the Irish Jig in in March, slowed by burning muscles and freezing sleet, I posted my worst 5K time in years. In the Reeds Lake Run in June, slowed again by burning muscles plus soupy heat and humidity, I ran a disappointing 5K on dead legs. It was poetic justice that I should return to the scene before the end of 2005 with a new resolve after a revitalization in the year's second half.

Thanks to race directors Joe O'Brien and Jeff Peterson, who switched Resolution race day to New Year's Eve from its past date of New Year's Day, I got my wish for a timely chance at redemption.

Not that everything went according to Hoyle, or even according to Tolkien.

Setting out at a brisk pace, I soon felt a burning sensation in my shoulders, just as in the two earlier races, as if something in the East Grand Rapids air disagreed with my breathing or circulation.

But maybe I'd just started out too fast. Maybe I should back off. When my watch read 6:13 at the mile marker, a pace to shatter my previous best for the distance by almost a minute, I knew I couldn't sustain the frenzy. Having already run a few downslopes, I knew I'd have to climb in the back half.

Before I'd gone out a mile and a half, by virtue of a barely-perceptible slackening in pace, my shoulders had quit burning. If I could stay in contact with a woman a few strides ahead of me, a masters notable who'd smoked me at the end of a 10K in East Grand Rapids a year earlier, I'd feel I'd accomplished something.

She preceded me through a slushy turnaround. Trailing runners meeting us on the way back called her name. Even more called mine. Late in the third mile I pulled even with her at the crest of a steep climb; we strode side by side down the far slope. She probably had no idea she'd met me in that earlier race, no idea she'd smoked me way back then.

Too bad she didn't know I'd taken her measure, taken my cue from her heels.

On the course's longest climb, with a mile to go, I forged ahead. Going around some flat curves, with a half-mile to go, she took back the lead. I croaked a word in admiration. She said nothing.

I clipped her on the gentle upslope in the final two-tenths of a mile, crossing the mat two seconds ahead of her. She got her own back, though, clipping me by three seconds in chip time, getting the last word without ever opening her mouth.

My official time of 25:58 was a mere 14 seconds slower than my four- mile PR and placed me second in my age group.

What held me back from crowing was a suspicion that some of the competition treated the Wolverine as a fun run. Still the race exorcized the 2005 demons of Reeds Lake and cleared the East Grand Rapids air of whatever disagreed with my breathing or circulation.

Word has it the organizers plan to stick to New Year's Eve, a good resolution to my way of thinking. This one, for me, put a happy capper on a year of doldrums and rejuvenation.

All it took was to venture out with a little resolve to come back with a Resolution. MR