By the time he’d reached the top of 29th Street Hill, first-time Ogden Newspapers 20K Classic entrant Alene Reta of Ethiopia realized that map he’d seen didn’t exactly do the course justice.

“That first hill was very tough,” he said.

It hardly mattered.

Pacing alongside Kenyans McDonald Ondara and Richard Kimeli after the trio had pulled away from the pack, the 25-year-old Reta quickly decided he’d seen enough.

He’d seen enough of the hill, enough of the course and, most importantly, enough of the competition to know he had a chance to win the race all by himself.

So he did.

Two months removed from winning the Holyoke (Mass.) St. Patrick’s Day 10K and the New Bedford (Mass.) Half Marathon on back-to-back days, Reta separated himself at the halfway point and cruised to victory in his initial appearance in the event, hitting the tape in 1:00.59.

Despite tempuratures in the mid-70s and humidity levels running high, Reta’s time was a record for the altered course, which was playing host to its third consecutive Ogden 20K Classic. The record had been 1:03.04, set by Kenyan Julius Kibet in 2005.

Ondara finished second at 1:02.13, followed by third-place Kimeli at 1:03.18. Ondara and Kimeli were 1-2 finishers in last November’s OBX Half Marathon in the Outer Banks.

Reta was running the Ogden 20K sight-unseen, using only the course map as a pre-race guide.

If a picture is worth 1,000 words, most of them were written in a language he doesn’t speak fluently. He’d heard a little about the course’s rugged topography, enough to slow even the elite.

Still, he made it look easy.

“Umm, it’s a good time because the course is uphill and down,” Reta said. “It’s very tough. A challenge. But every race has a hill. I trained on both uphill and flat.”

Reta, Ondara, and Kimeli no doubt had the competitive juices flowing, as they all had a bit of a race a day earlier just making sure they entered on time.

While entries are accepted until the race begins, none of the top three finishers were signed up as of 2 p.m. Friday.

Reta, who lives in New York, entered at 3 p.m., while Kimeli and Ondara, both of whom came in from Santa Fe, N.M., arrived in town around midnight.

“We didn’t even have time to look at the course,” Kimeli said. “I’m not good at the uphills. That’s what got me.”

For the first three miles, they learned the layout together.

“I ran with them for 2 miles,” said Wheeling’s Ricky Moore, a sixth-place finisher at 1:07.30. “That’s the last I saw of them after that.”

The three-man race quickly became a one-man show.

“There were three of us until 5K (Bethlehem),” Reta said. “After 6K (down the hill), there were two of us. After 10K (Washington Ave.), I pushed myself.

“It’s good to run together because it pushes the pace and it opened up for myself.”

Kimeli saw he wasn’t going to be able to catch up, though he was happy with his time.

“Yes, especially at this course,” he said. “If I’d have run the course (before), I’d have known what to expect.

“If it was not uphill, maybe it could have been around 58 (minutes).”