Latex - \multicolumn within an align* environment
I would like to have a \multicolumn like effect within an align* environment, as shown in the code snippet (which doesn't work) below. I.e., I want the text to be aligned with the leftmost column, but it shouldn't affect the alignment characteristics of the equation otherwise. \intertext{...} unfortunately flushes everything to the left margin, even when the equation is centered.
\begin{align*}
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\
\multicolumn{5}{l}{Some text that I want to appear here..} \\
%\intertext{Some text that I want to appear here} \\
7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12
\end{align*}
How do I make this happen?
Many thanks in advance!
Answer
\begin{align*}
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 \\
\omit\rlap{Some text that I want to appear here...}\\
7 & 8 & 9 & 10 & 11 & 12
\end{align*}
Generally, as a replacement for \multicolumn within align-like environments, one could try to experiment with \multispan, but it seems to interfere badly with the alignment in this case.