Several area residents recently finished a nearly 500-mile bike trek as they participated in the Register's Annual Greater Bike Ride Across Iowa. Included in that group is Randy White, now a five-year veteran of the RAGBRAI. "This is my fifth year to complete the event, which was my original goal when I started,' said White, a PGA golf teaching professional and executive director of First Priority of the Lakeshore. "It was hard to believe I made it after being asked to join Bob Whipkey five years ago. It just gets in your blood.

It's been long overdue for Don Roberts and his wife Carolyn to compete at the Coast Guard Festival Run. The Lakeland, Fla., residents and Battle Creek natives have quite the running log: Don, 79, said he's been running competitively for 33 years, while Carolyn, 77, has 25 years of experience. "We like to see how many states we can run in. We'd like to do all 50,' Don said. "We had a competition with our son at one time to see how many we could get to.

Grand Haven High School graduate Becca Addison overcame the late morning heat and a strong field to take home top honors in the 10K portion of the annual Coast Guard Festival Run, held at the Tri-Cities YMCA and surrounding downtown Grand Haven Saturday morning. The run was presented by North Ottawa Community Health System. Addison, who will be a junior this fall at the University of Michigan, enjoyed strong seasons on the Wolverines' womens' cross country and track teams this past season. She was two-time All-American during the indoor track season.

Cameron McNeil grew up sailing butterflies at the Spring Lake and White Lake yacht clubs, and has made a name for himself in sailing circles as one of the top MC Class sailors in the nation. This past weekend, McNeil, a 2000 Spring Lake High School graduate, got a chance to go up against the top sailors from across the country in an entirely different boat - the Laser. McNeil was one of 22 sailors invited to participate in the U.S. Sailing Singlehanded Championships, an annual regatta that pits the top sailors of singlehanded boats from across the country.

After several months of working to get Gov. Rick Snyder out fishing for a day, local charter boat captain Denny Grinold got his chance this week. Grinold hosted the governor on Monday, and said he came away extremely impressed.

After months of public nastiness and private negotiations, of court filings and rulings, of players and owners squabbling over more than $9 billion a year, NFL fans finally saw the handshake and heard the words they awaited: "Football's back." NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFL Players Association head DeMaurice Smith both used that phrase while standing shoulder-to-shoulder Monday, announcing their agreement on a 10-year deal to end the lockout that began in March.

Light rain and humidity didn't stop more than a hundred runners from taking part in the 2011 Coast Guard Park Trail Run at Coast Guard Park in Ferrysburg on Saturday morning. Todd Losee, race director for Inspirational Racing, the company behind the run, said he estimated about 160 runners took part in this year's run. "We've had a real good turnout,' Losee said. "We've had about a 50-percent increase over last year, so it's been a real nice increase in people.'

The Grand Valley State women's cross country and track and field programs left little doubt that the Lakers would be the best Division II running program in the country this year. For the third consecutive season, Grand Valley State has been named the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Division II Program of the Year, as released by the national office in New Orleans recently.