Hughes, Mildren win Boxing Day 10 miler for second consecutive year

The 98th annual Boxing Day 10 and 4 miler took place on Wednesday morning in Hamilton, Ont. The race draws huge crowds of runners to brave the cold temperatures and run an off distance road race. 

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RELATED: Runners battle frigid conditions at Boxing Day 10-Miler

Among the runners were Olympics, Canadian record holders and national champions. The conditions were much better than the 2017 event, which saw temperatures as low as -22 degrees celsius. Wednesday’s event saw relatively mild temperature which hovered around zero degrees. The runners certainly weren’t wearing shorts last year. 

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Olympian and Canadian 3,000m steeplechase record holder Matt Hughes took the win in the 10 mile (16K) in 48:05. Hughes also won the 2017 event. He was followed by Tristan Woodfine of Cobden, Ont. in 48:09 and Mike Tate in 48:38. Marathoner Reid Coolsaet finished fourth in 49:37. 

Man, can’t even finish top 3 at a local road race anymore! (The course runs less than 100m from my house.) I’m actually pleased with my time today and can’t complain when top 3 break the old course record. Ended 2018 on a good note and looking forward to 2019. #boxingday10miler pic.twitter.com/aNwNsTrAz0

— Reid Coolsaet (@ReidCoolsaet) December 26, 2018

In the women’s race Robyn Mildren took the title for the second year in a row finishing in 55:46, second place went to Victoria Coates in 56:57 and third place to Mengistu Emebet in 59:34. 

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The event also includes a four-miler which was won by Hussein Hashi in 19:48 and Colleen Wilson in 22:53. Complete results can be found here. 

The Boxing Day 10-Miler is one of four popular southern Ontario off-distance (not a typical race length) road races this winter. The next three include the Robbie Burns 8K, Re-Fridgee-Eighter and Around the Bay 30K.