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EAST GRAND RAPIDS (6/26/04) - A Kenyan from Hemlock, new mom, and Hansons Olympic hopefuls reigned over a parade of 2,000-plus entrants in the money-injected, sunshine-rich Reeds Lake Run. The 5K and 10K races, offered for 25 years by the City of East Grand Rapids, picked up a major-league sponsor in May: Standard Federal Bank. Result: a boost in amenities for the average Joe/Judy Jogger, and in prize money for elites.

Reeds Lake used to offer $250 to the top men's and women's 5K and 10K finishers, $125 for each runner-up, and $75 for third-place finishers. More than chump change, but not enough to draw attention outside the region.

Add Standard Federal and boom: This year's purse soared to $10,000, including $700 for first, $500 for second, $400 for third, $300 for fourth, $200 for fifth and for Masters (over age 40) champions.

Those figures, plus a $100 bonus for setting a new course record, drew star-studded fields on this 60-degree, cloudless morning, ideal for running.

"We got lucky," said EGR Parks & Recreation Director Fred Bunn, himself an elite runner. Maybe. But luck - as anyone who labors to "do things right" can attest - is the residue of design.

Jared Segera, a Kenyan who trains in Kentucky, ran a 4:29 first mile in the 8 a.m. 5K race, then got swallowed by a lead pack including former- Olympian Paul McMullen, two-time Brian Diemer Amerikam 5K champion Matt Thull of Wisconsin, Kenyans Shadrack Kimeli and Mike Korir.

Also among the challengers were Mark Menefee and Josh Eberly from the Hansons-Brooks Olympic Development Project based in Rochester. "Our athletes are running their last races before the 5,000- and 10,000- meter U.S. Olympic Trials next month," said Project co-founder/coach Keith Hanson.

"We don't expect them to make the American team - not this year," Hanson continued. "But we want them to be as sharp for the Trials as they can be."

Menefee, 26, looked like a dwarf running next to McMullen, a 1500- meter semifinalist in the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. But most distance runners do. The muscular McMullen, a Coast Guard member stationed in Grand Haven, sailed into Reeds Lake on the heels of wins at the Spectrum Health Irish Jig 5K March 20 in East Grand Rapids (running a course-record 14:41 in a deluge) and Fifth Third River Bank 5K Run May 8 in Grand Rapids - the latter after qualifying for the Olympic Trials 1500 12 hours earlier in Ann Arbor.

McMullen/Superman left his cape in the washer this time. Menefee, who used to run for the University of Kansas, pulled away to prevail in 14:03, breaking Kyle Baker's 2001 course-record 14:18. Thull, 29, stayed with Menefee till the final 600 meters, then settled for second in 14:11. McMullen fell to ninth, crossing in 14:58.

Betsy Frens, a seven-time All-American while running for Calvin College, showed her win at the June 12 Diemer Run in Cutlerville - her first race since giving birth in November - was not a fluke. Frens, 29, won the women's 5K in 17:07. Second was ageless 1984 Irish Olympian Monica Joyce, 45, of Pinckney, in 17:36.

Hemlock, known as Socrates' least-favorite beverage, may take on new fame if the exploits of John Kariuki are any clue. Kariuki, a Kenyan who has settled in that village of 1,600, west of Saginaw, proved poison to competitors in the 10K.

The 34-year-old Kariuki, coming back from an Achilles tendon injury seven months earlier, blitzed the field in the day's second race with a 29:16. He, like Menefee, tacked on a $100 course-record bonus to his $700 first-place money. Ron Johnson's old standard, 29:57, had stood 15 years.

Team Hansons' Brian Sell, 26, kept the winner in sight, coming home in 29:32.

Yet another course record fell in the women's 10K. Melissa White, a Division 3 college All-American wearing the colorful checkerboard uniform of Team Hansons, steamed around Reeds Lake and through Gaslight Village to triumph in 34:34. Laura Albers had set the old mark, 35:53, way back in 1986.

Frens completed the day's most-successful "double" (running in both races), placing second in 36:38.

Most participants took considerably more time to enjoy the courses, sunshine and post-race children's activities. Then came a concert, awards and feast on Wege Plaza, overlooking the sparkling lake.

Among the later-arriving celebrants was Blitz, mascot of the Grand Rapids Rampage Arena Football League team. If you haven't high-fived a rhinoceros after running a great summer road race, you haven't lived.

Complete race results are available online at www.classicrace.com. MR