116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
40th year of Fifth Season Race in Cedar Rapids
Friday marks the 40th year since the debut of the Fifth Season Races — home to the longest-tenured eight-kilometer race in the country
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CEDAR RAPIDS — Cedar Rapids’ Fourth of July running tradition is ready to celebrate another milestone.
Friday marks the 40th year since the debut of the Fifth Season Races — home to the longest-tenured eight-kilometer race in the country — and the response has been robust.
“This year, right now, to date we are 223 registrants ahead of same date last year,” the event’s race director, Jim Dwyer, told The Gazette Monday. “Right now, we’re trending for about 12, 13 hundred. Fourteen hundred would be great.”
Staged by Corridor Running of Cedar Rapids, Friday’s event includes a youth mile run, a kid’s fun run, a 5K run/walk race and the aforementioned 8K run, which begins at 7:30 a.m. at the corner of Third Avenue SE and Fifth Street in front of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.
“The 8K distance is a very unique distance,” Dwyer said. “The first race director, the late Dr. Ken Paulsen (1986-87) wanted a unique event because if you think, 5Ks and 10Ks are very prevalent. They are a dime a dozen.”
While the course has undergone subtle changes since its 1986 debut, the current route maintains the same overall downtown footprint. Runners will head east from Greene Square Park on Third Avenue SE to 19th Street SE and then to Grande Avenue SE. A turnaround at Bever Park will send the field back to Greene Square Park where the finish line awaits.
“I like the 8K distance,” said former Cedar Rapids Prairie and University of Iowa runner Matt Lorenz, 26. “It’s a little on the short side for me coming from the half-marathon and the marathon. It’s a good challenge for me. I think the course is actually sneaky hard. There are some hills that can be grinders.”
Lorenz — who competes for Runablaze Iowa, a distance-running club based in Des Moines — is one of 15 runners across the men’s and women’s divisions that have won the Fifth Season 8K more than once in its 40-year history. Lorenz won the 8K in back-to-back years (2022, 2023) and can make it three wins in four years with a strong performance Friday.
“I viewed it as a really special accomplishment,” said Lorenz, who will begin his sixth year as an assistant coach for the Prairie cross country and track teams during the 2025-26 school year. “I remember running it when I was younger and looking up to those guys that were always in the front and kind of being in awe at how fast they were going. To be in that position was really special for me.”
In addition to elite runners from Runablaze, there will also be competitors from distance-running clubs in Minneapolis and the Quad Cities. All in all, there will be participants from 24 different states and three countries. Runners can pick up their race packets Thursday from 3-8 p.m. at the Doubletree by Hilton’s Taft Ballroom.
“It means a lot to me,” Lorenz said. “I have been doing it since high school, so it’s just part of my summer routine. It’s just kind of a tradition that I like to do and a lot of other runners that I know also participate in. It’s really cool having a big race like that that’s local and brings a lot of people out for.”
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