Runners flood the streets in the 125th Around the Bay Road Race

Ten thousand runners flooded the streets of downtown Hamilton for North America’s oldest road race.

The 125th Around the Bay Race took place Sunday morning, drawing people from all over the world to our city.

As soon as the horn went off, a sea of people raced down York Boulevard. A stampede that marked the first few steps of the thousands needed to complete the 30 kilometre course. The same distance from downtown Hamilton to Oakville.

Daniel Kemoi was the overall winner after running the race in just one hour and 32 minutes. Panuel Mkungo and Dylan Wykes came in second and third respectively.

🥇30K overall winner Daniel Kemoi (1:32.57.7)
2nd place Panuel Mkungo (1:34.08.4)
3rd Dylan Wykes (1:35.04.4)

Congratulations and thanks for being a part of Bay Race history. pic.twitter.com/pMfe4TMd7X

— Bay Race 30k (@bayracerun) March 31, 2019

Mengistu Emebet was the top female winner with a time of one hour and 45 minutes. Dayna Pidhoresky came in second place and Salome Nyirarukundo rounded out the top three.

Congrats to our female 30K winners
1st: Mengistu Emebet (1:45:57.2)
2nd: Dayna Pidhoresky (1:49:03.1)
3rd: Salome Nyirarukundo (1:50:03.9) pic.twitter.com/HmlTCc71YT

— Bay Race 30k (@bayracerun) March 31, 2019

If running 30 kilometres on a Sunday morning doesn’t sound appealing, the Around the Bay also has a 5K race.

Alex Drover from Kingston ran it in a breezy 15 minutes coming in first place, a big jump from last year when he came in ninth.

The first place woman finished the 5k in 17 minutes and 37 seconds. She finished first last year too.

While some are running to beat their personal best, for others, just being able to participate is a big milestone.

Some of the runners here today never thought they would be able to accomplish something like this.

The historic road race bringing together not only the greatest runners, but also the most determined of people.