By The Canadian Press

N.B. mother has the inside track on stroller run world record

Mar 6, 2026 | 11:22 AM

FREDERICTON — A middle school art teacher from Fredericton says she started running again not long after giving birth 17 months ago, and now all those kilometres may have her on track for a Guinness World Record.

Julia Reid-Howell’s doctor said she could start running about six weeks after she gave birth to her daughter, Winnie. She began on the treadmill while the baby was napping, and when Winnie was big enough, she pushed her along on park runs, thinking it was a great way for the two of them to get outside. Last fall, Reid-Howell says she started to push herself for faster times with the stroller.

When a friend mentioned there must be a world record for stroller runs, Reid-Howell found that Guinness World Records had several categories at various distances, as well as records for single, double and triple strollers.

“There’s so many different records that I saw there, and seeing the 1K distance record was currently three minutes and 35 seconds, I figured, Oh, that’s kind of doable for my fitness level,” the Nashwaaksis Middle School teacher said in an interview Friday.

There’s various rules for a world record. Reid-Howell says the stroller can’t be modified and must be commercially available, the wheels can never leave the ground and the runner must have at least one hand on the stroller at all times. It requires two independent witnesses and two different timekeepers, along with photos from various angles and a video of the entire attempt.

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Reid-Howell and Winnie made their bid for the record Feb. 28 at the Gagetown Fitness Centre in nearby Oromocto, N.B., clocking in at three minutes, 17 seconds and 37 hundredths of a second, besting a French woman’s previous record of three minutes, 35 seconds and 14 hundredths of a second.

“I think down the road just to be able to tell my daughter that ‘Hey, we did this. You were such a big part of my running that postpartum year,’” said Reid-Howell. “And then finishing maternity leave off and doing this big event with her it’s just awesome. I hope when she’s a teenager she’ll be like, ‘Oh wow. That was cool.’”

Reid-Howell is now in the process of submitting paperwork to Guinness and hopes to hear back from officials within the next month. If she’s certified, Canadians will hold both the men’s and women’s one-kilometre stroller run records. Toronto’s Brendan Neely broke the men’s record last May, according to Guinness, with a time of two minutes and 51 seconds.

Reid-Howell says Winnie doesn’t always want to be buckled into the stroller, so sometimes they just walk. Winnie likes to point to things she sees while they’re outside, especially dogs. During the record attempt, the crowd was clapping and applauding the mother-daughter duo.

“She would start clapping, and she was kicking her legs, and she’s happy the whole time. So that was really fun to see,” said Reid-Howell.

Taking Winnie running in the fresh air was a big part of her postpartum recovery, she said, adding that it’s important for new mothers to get out of the house and do something they love, even if it’s just going for coffee.

Before she got pregnant, Reid-Howell participated in 5K and 10K races, and even completed a half marathon. She says it’s still too early to say if Winnie will get the running bug like her mother, but a trip to a children’s run shortly after Winnie started walking last August offered a clue.

“Once she heard the music, she stopped and danced a lot,” said Reid-Howell with a chuckle.

“So maybe dancing? We’ll see. But right now she really does like being around people who are running and I think just socializing. She’ll be big at that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2026.

— By Devin Stevens in Halifax.

The Canadian Press