GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Amway River Bank Run will draw hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators Saturday morning in downtown Grand Rapids.
Live coverage gets underway at 6 a.m. on WOOD Radio (AM 1300) and 96.1 The Game. The largest 25K road race in the country begins at 8:30 a.m. Russ Hines, the C-E-O for Riverbank Events and Media, was a guest Friday on West Michigan's Morning News. He notes that big screens will be set up at DeVos Place and you can also watch as the runners complete their runs:
"We're bringing in the Live Space Jumbotron. We'll have cameras up there that will be on the finish line. So, if you're waiting for loved ones, or friends or neighbors - or whoever it might be - to cross that finish line, you can sit there and chat with everybody and still watch the entire event," Hines said.
Registration was still open for the race on Friday, but you have to do it in person at DeVos Place. The Sports and Fitness Expo is going on there until 8 p.m. today (Friday).
Here is the website link for that. Here is another web link.
Hines says putting the race on every year takes the help of many volunteers, plus others who contribute.
"I just thank everybody for coming together and helping us out in order to put this on. Because the City of Grand Rapids, we work so closely with them to be able to work to close the streets and to hook the meters, and all those types of things. And the police and fire ... And we used to bring in officers from other departments because it takes so many people to put this on."
The Power of 5 5K starts at 7 a.m. The Fox Hyundai 10K starts at 7:30. The Hometown Pharmacy 5K Walk starts at 7:45. And then, the 25K race starts at 8:30. Fifth Third Bank is a main sponsor for that, along with Corewell Health, and Amway is the title sponsor for the overall River Bank Run, which was launched in 1978.
###