This column is Mohamad Bsat’s opinion. He is a staff lawyer at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic and the founder of the running group Air Up There.See the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for more information about CBC’s Opinion page.
Last weekend, I stood in the corrals with thousands of other people who wanted to run the 30-kilometer Around the Bay course through Hamilton.
It was my third time running Around the Bay and my second time living in Hamilton. Every year, this race fills my soul and gives me a lot of joy.
Why is the race so important? It’s older than the Boston Marathon and everyone in Hamilton knows what it is, but the faithful know there’s more.
Everyone in the running community knows how powerful and attractive Around the Bay is, and how a community race can help a person heal.
This race is so special because of how well people understand each other. The race is beautiful and brings people together, but the real attraction, the real stardust, is in the way it is run.
Collaboration is better than competin
Since at least 2017, Hamilton has been quietly and steadily building up its running community. This is not just a community for fast, white, middle-class men, but also one that represents our city and its roots.
This city was built by blue-collar work, strong unions, and ideas from the counter-culture. Today, the community is supported by groups like Hamilton Students 4 Justice, young and old Indigenous activists, Queer culture, newcomers, good coffee, unions, great subs, tasty breweries, a growing ramen scene, and, of course, doughnuts.
Take a run through the lower city, and you’ll see how the running community in Hamilton has changed and grown, just like the city itself.
There are at least six groups of runners that meet in different parts of the city on different days of the week.
Each group has something different to offer and has its own place in society, but they all strongly back the efforts of other groups, from the BIPOC-only run to the Every Body initiative. It’s better to work together than to compete. It’s the power of the group.
An antidote we need right no
How does this relate to Around the Bay? People have always made Around the Bay something special. It’s not just one day on the last weekend of March; it’s a promise to each other to get through the harsh winter. In the past few years, it’s also been a way to heal the deep divisions in society.
Group runs give people a chance to get together and talk about things they care about and have fun together from December to March. Every year, each group gets people from all over the city to run the race with them. There is a place for you in each group, whether it’s your first time or your 10th.
Running groups aren’t new in Hamilton. For decades, legacy groups have been meeting once a week to train for the Around the Bay. We’ve seen that the fight for fairness and against oppression has made its way into running groups, since running doesn’t happen in a vacuum. With the idea that Hamilton is becoming more fair, there are more runners in the city.
This shared spirit is what has made Around the Bay so special in the end. The race is a parade of the city’s best people. On Sundays, a lot of people run through the streets for six hours, and people from the community join them by lining the course to celebrate all that Hamilton has to offer.
We’re proud of being able to live with the black-tipped smoke stacks on Burlington Street, the wealth gap between the lower city and North Shore Blvd., and the small businesses on James Street that are always changing and still doing well.
We trot and puff our way through it all, all believing that if we stick together, we can make it in this city. And for a moment, we are all free from the stresses of life, just like I felt last Sunday, so that we can run around the bay together in peace.
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