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Introducing The Miles of Smiles Race Series Sponsored by Iowa Falls Family Dentistry |
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Results With the end of summer comes the end of Iowa Falls Family Dentistry’s Miles of Smiles Race Series. The summer-long running competition began with the Prairie Bridges 5K Run on June 5th, then continued with the Riverbend Run 5K on July 3rd, Radcliffe Cardinal Trot July 17th, Union Tarheel Days and Dows Corn Days 5Ks on August 7th. The series concluded with the Beeds Lake Restoration Run 5K, 10K and Half-marathon on August 28th. The July 24th Pine Lake Trail Run was canceled due to damage to the trails from last year’s hail storm.
Throughout the season, a scoring system was used to award points for runners who participated in the various runs. From the very start, two runners sat atop the standings in the men’s and women’s division and never relinquished their leads. Ames runner, Eric Cogdill, 29, won 5 of the races to take the men’s title and the overall championship. He set course records on most or all of the courses in the process. On the women’s side, Sarah Dieken, 19, of Dike won all four of the races she participated in. They each took home a $100 check for their efforts.
In all, 68 people participated in the free Miles of Smiles Race Series with 40 of those completing at least two of the races and 25 completing 3 or more races to earn a free shirt. The goal of the Series is to increase the participation at local races and provide motivation for runners to continue their running throughout the season. The races involved saw an average increase in runner registrations of over 20% compared to last year.
Plans are in the works to grow the series to include more races next year. We plan for it to remain free to all who enter.
Sincerely, J. Brad Miller DDS Director of the Miles of Smiles Race Series |