Fredericton woman seeks world record for fastest run pushing a stroller
- Liam Carleton
- Mar 23
- 3 min read
A local Fredericton middle school art teacher and avid runner may have just broken the world record for fastest female 1 km run while pushing a stroller.
With her 17-month-old daughter Winnie sitting in front of her, Julia Reid-Howell beat the current record by nearly 20 seconds at Base Gagetown’s Fitness Facility on Feb. 28.
The current Guinness World Record is three minutes and 35 seconds. Her time was three minutes and 17 seconds.
“When I ran, it honestly felt like it went by pretty quick and I watched and looked down at her in the stroller and I saw how happy she was clapping and just excited to be there,” said Reid-Howell. “It made me feel so just happy as a mom and that, you know, I couldn't believe that I was doing it. So I think that really pushed me.”
Reid-Howell said she was worried about making the attempt that day, due to Winnie having a series of sicknesses over the past few months. Winnie wasn’t getting a lot of sleep most nights, which could impact her mood during the run.
She believes that having her family, friends and her Fredericton V-MAXXERS running teammates cheering her on helped her daughter get into the spirit of the day.
She ran the kilometre twice. Her coach, Greg Allan, along with another local runner, kept time using a stopwatch. Her final time was taken from the average of the two.
Reid-Howell first heard of different running records before researching the 1 km in a stroller. A man in Moncton holds the record for running while juggling three balls.
“I kind of knew that there was these cool running world records, but then once I started doing a couple of park runs here in town with a stroller, I surprised myself with how fast I was able to do that,” she said. “Then I started chatting with some people and then I started googling it and saw that, ‘oh my gosh, there's some stroller Guinness records’ and found the 1 km time.”
She first shared the idea with her teammates and her husband. She said she was nervous that people would find the whole thing “a little silly,” especially if she didn’t beat the record.
However, they were really encouraging and in January, she announced she would attempt the run.
The process for submitting the record includes proof of two timekeepers and two witnesses whom Reid-Howell didn’t know at a personal level. She also submitted video proof of the entire run, along with photos from different angles.
The stroller also must be commercially available and she needed photos showing that it hadn’t been modified to make the run easier.
“It wasn't complicated, it was time-consuming,” she said. “I was just worried, 'what if I did something wrong? What if I didn't do everything they wanted me to do?' So I was really trying to make sure I had as much evidence as possible to upload.”
If her record is accepted, Reid-Howell believes that someone will likely challenge her time soon.
When asked if she would try to reclaim the record if she loses it, she said that it would be a pretty good goal to get it back.
“There's also other distances too, like there's a one mile,” she said. “I think the one mile time is pretty achievable too for me … there's other distances that maybe I could go after as well.”
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