New mom sets new record at Cape to Cabot running race

A woman from St. John's who recently had a baby set a new record at the 7th annual Cape to Cabot 20-kilometre race in St. John's on Sunday.

The race route runs the distance from Cape Spear to Cabot Tower at the very peak of Signal Hill in the capital city.

Kate Vaughan-Bazeley, who had a baby earlier this year, now holds the fastest time for any female runner of the race with a time of one hour and 21 minutes.

"I think it's a great race. It's really well organized, there's a lot of good, really positive energy, and it's really fun. It's an awesome race," she said.

Vaughan-Bazeley said she usually sticks to routes that are mostly flat, so the big hills were a challenge for her.

"It was a good, hard run. The hills were tough, but the downhills were fast," Vaughan-Bazeley said. "The last mile was very painful, but it was good — it was fun."

The winner of the race by more than a kilometre was Dave Freake, with a time of one hour and 14 minutes.

Freake said it was actually hard for him to be so far out front in the race because there's no one to keep pace with.

"That whole way I was just trying to stay within myself and just trying to stay on pace as best I could," he said.

According to Freake, the race is an exceptionally challenging one, but it's well worth the pain.

"It's just all hills. There's probably four [kilometres] that aren't hilly but everything else is just all up and down and it's extremely hard to hold a pace, so I find that very challenging," he said.

"But it's an excellent race and excellent people here that come out, and overall a fantastic event. It's definitely on par with anything up away, or ahead of it."

More than 400 runners competed this year. The usual limit for the number of runners is 400, but event organizers said the registration has been filling up faster each year.

Organizers said although they experimented a little this year and let a few extra runners sign up, they don't have plans to expand the race.