Fifth Third River Bank Run Rewards Record Crowds

By Scott Sullivan

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. (5/8/10) -- Through miles amassed through millenniums, solitude, sweat and setbacks, runners chase a dream: to have a gold medal draped around our necks or a laurel wreath placed upon our foreheads.

Such is the state of my running that, upon entering the expo for the Fifth Third River Bank Run, the USATF 25K championship, I was draped with a beer koozie.

Not that the 33rd running of this classic lacked talent, turnout, or, as it turned out, squalls and wind. Heading the record 6,562 entrants in the 25K -- which took runners over the Grand River and through woods on the day before Mother’s Day before finishing back downtown -- was Andrew Carlson, 28, of Flagstaff, Ariz., who finished in 1 hour, 14 minutes and 42 seconds, a 4:49-mile pace.

Next came his Grand Canyon area training partners Brett Gotcher, 25, (1:15:06) and Nicholas Arciniaga, 26, (1:15:18). Fourteen U.S. runners crossed before defending champ Isaack Kimaiyo of Kenya, flustered by the blustery day, led the internationals rolling in.

Greg Meyer, elite athlete coordinator and 7-time winner here, called the showing another sign of the renaissance of distance running in this country.

“We saw Meb Keflezighi win last fall’s New York City Marathon, Dathan Ritzenhein (raised in Rockford, 10 miles north of here) break the U.S. 5K record last summer and Chris Solinsky do the same in the 10K two weeks ago,” said Meyer, the last U.S. male to wear the laurel wreath as Boston Marathon champion before any of today’s top-3 finishers were born.

When will he lose that distinction? “Soon, maybe,” Meyer said.“ Ryan Hall is capable. So is Ritzenhein. Other young runners are up and coming.

“It’s exciting to see,” Meyer said.

Ethiopia’s Firehiwot Dado, 26, set a women’s course record winning in 1:23:45.09, breaking Joan Benoit Samuelson’s 1:24:43 mark set when Dado was two years old. Next came Kenyan Genoveva Kigen, 29, in 1:24:53.

Former University of Michigan All American Katie McGregor, 32, who won here outright in 2007 and trains with Team Minnesota, took third overall in 1:26:24 and joined Carlson as U.S. champion at the distance.

A record 19,737 runners and walkers braved 40-degree gales of May to take part in events that included 10K and 5K runs and a 5K walk.

Some came home with medals and part of a $95,500 total purse. Most returned with aches overwhelmed by a sense of accomplishment that their miles of trials had allowed them to finish a celebration.

Still others came home with beer koozies, attached to openers and strings to wear ’round our necks, so that cold ones, ready to go, will ever be near our hearts.