Race Against Time 2026
About the race
We are really excited to be offering this event, which we will only be organizing in alternate years! We hosted it in 2024 and it was a blast!
It will be fun to participate in and equally fun to watch. This is a "last person standing" style event with a twist. This is almost our last event of the year, a chance to get together and celebrate another year of putting one foot in front of the other.
This is a perfect race for our road running friends to get a glimpse of the trail running world. Although this isn't much of a "trail", a big part of what makes our trail community so special is the people.
This race is designed to be a grassroots, small, community-focused event, like the Leftovers Run.
Aid station and drop bags
- Bare-bones aid station with water and FLUID Electrolyte Drink.
- Races are cup-less: bring your own cup or bottle, labelled with your name. No glass cups.
- Drop bag access every mile.
- Bring warm clothes to change into and a chair if you like.
Entry and donation
This year the race is free (sort of). Bring a $20 cash donation and choose one of the charities we work with: SickKids, Melanoma Canada, Hamilton Conservation Authority, Hamilton Out-of-the-Cold. Put it in the donation jar of your choice at race-kit pick-up.
Each participant receives a bib, a race buff, and, as long as you complete at least 1 loop, a finisher's medal.
The race is not timed and individual results are not posted, so start and stop your own watch.
What your entry includes
The course
The race takes place on a 1 mile (1.61km) paved loop at Bayfront Park in Hamilton, ON. The loop is wide, paved, and mostly flat. Participants start each loop at a set official time, and the lap time limit shrinks as the race goes on. The race is last person standing, with one winner in each of the man, woman and non-binary categories.
Race format and lap rules
Lap timing
- All participants start the first loop at 9:00am and have 15 minutes to complete it.
- At 9:15am, all participants who completed the first loop start their second loop, with 14 minutes to complete it.
- Each subsequent loop must be completed a little faster than the last: 1 minute less per lap for the first 6 laps, 30 seconds less after 6 laps, then 15 seconds less after 12 laps.
- You cannot start the next lap until the official starting time of the next lap.
- If no runner completes the last lap in the allotted time, the first runner to complete the lap is the winner.
Race weekend schedule
Location
Bayfront Park, Hamilton, ON, Canada Open in Google Maps
City insight: Hamilton
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario, about 68 kilometres southwest of Toronto within the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It had 569,353 residents in the 2021 census and sits at the west end of Lake Ontario in the region known as the Golden Horseshoe. Winters are cold and snowy with warm, humid summers, so late spring and early autumn are the best seasons to race.
Know from the athletes
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