The Knoxville debut of the Goody’s Smile 20 campaign was a success on Sunday during the Covenant Health Marathon. Now, Smile 20 hits the road, bringing smiles — and science-backed relief — to marathoners everywhere.

Goody’s Pain Relief is helping marathon runners Get to Good when they need it most. Through the launch of a new white paper and the debut of an activation aimed to surprise marathon runners around the country, Goody’s is pairing its powerful pain relief with the simple act that anyone can do to aid in recovery: smile.

To bring the research to life, Goody’s created Smile 20, a surprise engagement for runners that lives at the notorious “mile 20” of a marathon race, the mile where the body’s glycogen stores start to deplete and runners’ endurance hits a wall.

Smile 20 made its debut at the April 6 Knoxville Marathon. Runners were photographed as they approached the 20th milestone, only to turn a corner and see their faces displayed in real-time on a giant digital screen with an AI-powered smile filter stuck in a toothy, infectious grin. The surprise sight triggered real, contagious smiles that, in return, helped them push through the inevitable wall.

Even the data smiled: pace tracking showed an increase in runners’ speed after passing the activation.

Goody’s published “The Science of Smiling & Benefits to Pain Relief,” a white paper on how the physical act of smiling can have a positive impact on pain relief in athletes, to demonstrate that smiling is scientifically proven to reduce pain. The white paper reviews a body of research and scientific literature spanning more than 20 years that indicates the act of smiling might offer an unexpected boost during moments of physical pain and exhaustion. The connection is both psychological and physiological: smiling activates the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and endorphins, all of which play a role in reducing the perception of pain.

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