By Paul Gains
It will be east versus west when the Athletics Canada 42K Relay Challenge gets underway during the 2020 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon Virtual Race on October 17th and 18th.
Canada’s West Coast will be well represented by “The Quarantine Queens,” a formidable foursome made up of Canadian marathon record holder Malindi Elmore, Canadian 10,000m record holder Natasha Wodak, 2018 Canadian Marathon champion Kinsey Middleton and last year’s Canadian Marathon Championship runner-up Emily Setlack.
But now a challenge has surfaced from a team of Newfoundland elites who call themselves “Rockin’ Rock Ladies” after the affectionate nickname assigned to their home province.
Kate Bazeley, who set a Newfoundland marathon record a year ago at the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon (2:36:35), has assembled a talented group - all living in St. John’s - who can be described as a potential threat to the western superstars. Bazeley, the mother of three young, very active girls ages seven, five and three says she is now training well.
“I had a bit of an injury in the spring right around the time the pandemic hit,” she explains. “Then, of course, all the races were cancelled. So I was able to take my time coming back. It was a slower process because I knew there were no imminent races.”
Bazeley can now turn her attention to offering those pesky “Quarantine Queens” a challenge.
Her teammates are Julia Kawamoto, Jade Roberts and Jennifer Baron. They are planning to get together to run 10.55K somewhere in St. John’s, although which of the two days on race weekend they choose, as well as the course, are still undetermined.
“Well, weather is a huge variable here,” she says with a smile. “There's like 50-kilometre winds here today. There are so many hills around here we are going to have to do loops. There is nowhere flat around here.”
“It is really exciting. There really wasn’t much on the go. These other virtual races you have months to get it done. This seems a bit more competitive and adds a bit more fire. It will be fun to switch up the training.”
Bazeley becomes animated when she is asked to talk about her teammates. Julia Kawamoto was a star on the track for Simon Fraser University and won multiple NAIA titles over 800m, 1,500m and cross country, before returning with her husband to Newfoundland. Bazeley says, “She is really talented and really liking the roads!”
Jennifer Barron is a well-known road racer in the St. John’s area, having performed well at various 5K races in 2019, winning the Boston Pizza Flat Out 5K and finishing second in the Mundy Pond 5K.
The youngest member on the team is Jade Roberts, 23. She won the Atlantic University Sport individual cross country title in 2019 for Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) while working as a nurse in a pediatric Intensive Care Unit. She has since entered medical school at MUN.
A native of Twillingate, a remote town on the northeast coast of Newfoundland in a region known as Iceberg Alley, Roberts made news this past winter when she ran 24K through a severe storm to get groceries for her landlord’s family.
“That was ‘Snowmageddon,’” she fondly recalls. “We were basically stranded. The city was in a state of emergency and all the roads were closed. In nearby communities, within 10K of me, they opened the stores, but we weren’t allowed to drive. So I ran and got some groceries that I could fit in my backpack.”
The invitation to join this impressive relay team was just what Roberts needed to break up the monotony of training and she immediately accepted it.
“I was really excited,” she says. “I have been training like I would if there were races, but I really wasn’t expecting anything to come up. I have been working really hard over the summer so this is an opportunity to have some sort of goal in mind.”
Joining such an illustrious group of women, who are celebrated in Newfoundland, she admits was a humbling experience. She has great respect for them all, particularly Kate Bazeley.
“Kate is very well respected and very well known, As a runner she is a big role model to me,” Roberts admits. “She had reached out to me once she noticed I was really interested in running and serious about it and asked me to join her on her long runs. This will be my first team event with her, and the fact that she asked me was just an honour.”
While the Athletics Canada Relay Challenge will attract some of Canada’s very best distance runners, the event is by no means restricted to elites. Anyone may assemble a team and join the Open four-person marathon relay by registering on the STWM.ca website.
The cost is CAD $135 per team of four, and team members can run their legs anywhere and at any time between October 1st - 31st.
Each Open relay participant will receive a reward package that contains a New Balance souvenir T-shirt, a unique medal featuring an engraving of Toronto’s Old City Hall clock tower, discounts from the Running Room, and a personal hand-written Thank-You note from a Canada Running Series staff member.
