Running 13.1 miles at 6:12 mile pace is an enormous feat on its own for most runners. Clocking that time on a hilly course? Even harder. Pushing a 22-pound baby in a stroller while doing it? That’s pretty much superhero territory.
But for Julia Webb—a former professional steeplechaser married to American mile record holder Alan Webb—the unlikely became reality on November 24 when she won the Route 66 Half Marathon in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a time of 1:21:23 while pushing her youngest daughter in a stroller. The performance shattered her previous stroller half marathon personal best, 1:22:57, which she ran in Chicago in 2016.
This half marathon was notably harder than her 2016 race for a few reasons: her baby was older (she ran with 10-month-old Gabby this year; in 2016, she ran with her daughter Paula, who was 9 months old at the time) and the Tulsa course was much hillier than Chicago.
“I should have done my homework and studied the course better. There was never a flat section of the race,” Julia, 36, told Runner’s World. “I had to take advantage of the downhills. I would push on the uphills and try to maintain my pace, then fly downhill.”
Luckily, the mother of three—the Webbs also have a 4- and 7-year-old daughters—had gained plenty of leg strength from months of hot and hilly training in her new hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. Over the summer, Alan was hired to coach the track and cross country teams at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, and the family moved from Beaverton, Oregon, to Arkansas in August.
“It was a big transition, but luckily the running community is supportive everywhere. I met some runners right away in Little Rock who were very welcoming,” Julia said. “It took some time to get used to the hills and the 100-degree heat, though.”
After the move, Julia decided to set a goal of beating her old stroller half marathon time. “I figured I had just had my third baby, and there’s only so much time that I can run with her in a stroller,” she said. “I wanted to take a stab at it.”
To train for the race, Julia did at least one run a week pushing Gabby in a stroller—but she never went faster than 6:50 per mile. “I still felt confident, since I’ve done it before,” she said.
Running with a stroller comes naturally for Julia, who has pushed each of her daughters over hundreds of miles. Luckily, her children have all loved riding in the stroller. “When we went fast, they would get quiet and look around, like, ‘Whoa, this is awesome,’” she said. “They tended to get fussier and bored the slower I went.”
In 2014, she set the Guinness World Record for 10K while pushing a stroller, finishing in 38:15. At her 2016 race in Chicago, she unofficially set the Guinness World Record for fastest stroller half marathon, but it was never verified because she didn’t film the entire race. For her most recent half, she documented the entire race—with help from Alan, who filmed on a bike beside her—and is now waiting on verification from Guinness. The current women’s world record for fastest half marathon pushing a stroller is 1:27:34, set by Lindsy James of the U.K. in 2016.
In the meantime, Julia is putting away the stroller for now to focus on her next race: the 2020 Olympic Marathon Trials in Atlanta next February. She qualified for the Trials last year at the Eugene Marathon, her debut 26.2, which she finished in 2:44:34.
“I was five weeks pregnant with Gabby at the time, but I didn’t know it yet,” she said. “I can’t wait to have her cheering for me at Trials, since we got there together.”
From: Runner’s World US
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