KALAMAZOO (6/19/04) - The route of the Kalamazoo Klassic has a reputation for speed. But to clock a flying time around the 10K course, a contender might want to toe the starting line wearing wings.

Contestants register for the 10K run, 5K run and 5K walk at a YMCA across the valley from Western Michigan University. Once they've paid their fees and laced down their timing chips, they walk the red-brick pavement up Maple Street Hill to the starting line. The staggered races begin with the 10K at 7:30 a.m. and follow with the 5K run at 8:30 and 5K walk at 8:37.

Once the gun sounds, it's downhill to the finish line ... that is, for the 5K route.

Beginning on Maple Street, the course takes racers via left turns along bending Oakland Drive, undulating Whites Road and descending Crosstown Parkway to the lower reaches of Maple, finishing on South Middle School's athletic fields. The topography yields a net drop of dozens of feet. Runners take the descending curves of Crosstown as if their shoes sprouted wings of Mercury.

But if they're competing in the 10K, they begin a second swing around the course once they bottom out on Maple. Consequently, at the race's mid-point they face a grueling, three-part climb up the Maple Hill.

The first part of the .65-mile rise deadens racers' wing beats with a long, shallow knoll; the second wears out their flight muscles with a steep, high rise; the third clips their feathers with a final crest.

A racer might spend the next mile shaking off the hill's effects. Flying mile splits on Crosstown turn into crawling mile splits on Maple. On his second go-round along Oakland, with the sunshine casting his shadow ahead on the macadam, he might note the difference in his stride length.

The saving grace is a second passage down Crosstown waits.

In this year's 26th annual Klassic, 262 men and women, racing in ideal temperatures in the 50s, had their wings clipped on the hill, only to fly again on the descent in the 10K race. Andrew Brinks, 23, from Champaign, Ill., won the men's title with a clocking of 34:00, edging out Dan Higgason, 38, of Portage, who crossed the finish line in 34:38. Julie Wagner, 34, of Chelsea, claimed the women's title in 39:29, beating Audrey Hill, 21, of Kalamazoo (40:28).

The true fliers came down off their perch in the 5K run. The field counted 566 runners, including several who'd done the 10K. Paul Barrows, 24, of Kalamazoo, stooped to capture the men's championship in 15:20, beating out Will Dobbie, 22, of Vicksburg (15:30). Heidi Saunders, 23, of Plainwell, swooped to the women's title in 17:37, topping Jenna Matthews, 14, of Otsego (19:02).

Saunders, a student at Goshen College in Indiana, left an indelible image while winning her third-straight 5K Klassic. Like an angel or fairy, she ran with real wings sewn to the back of her jersey. Like an eagle or a hawk swooping on its prey, she sprinted for the finish line with wings fluttering in her own draft.

For complete results, visit www.doitsports.com/ results/page.tcl?id=11632. MR