Saturday December 26th,Hamilton,On.
89th Annual Harold Webster Boxing Day 10 miler
For the 6th year in a row I signed up for this annual right of Christmas passage.What better way to govern the food and goodies intake on Christmas Day than a 10 mile race,and a tough one at that,on Boxing Day.
The day dawned on a wet and gloomy note but grew progressively better as we made our way across the QEW toward the Hammer.The rain stopped and truth be told,it was a near perfect day for racing.Just above freezing,non-factor winds and no snow or ice on course.The walk-up registration looked busy and would bring race numbers up to just over 800!Not bad for a holiday race.
Shortly after 11am an unceremonious shout of GO! and we were off.The early part of the race is flat along Bay past Copps Coliseum and down into the marinas and the waterfront trail.It’s a good time to find your pace and bank some time as almost immediately after the halfway point you encounter a long steady climb. A mile or so of flats follows and then begins THE climb of the race,a long gradual climb thru the Chedoke Golf Course which culminates with a steep uphill portion before the course again levels off on a gravel trail and eventually back to the streets for the final 2 miles of mostly downhill running.
I have been fortunate enough to better my time in each year I have competed in this race,and once again squeaked into the age-group awards with a 3rd place snowman medal as my reward. A bookend for the snowman finishers medal that debuted this year.
Outstanding course,great comraderie and snowmen medals!! Who could ask for more?
Happy Holidays
Cheers.
AD – awesome run! I don’t know how people run on this day but by the looks of the field, there are a lot of more dedicated athletes than I around the holidays.
Keep turning in the great results!
Larry