Running is a life-long passion for Kate Baker (nee Vernon), Duncraig Class of 2008, and the last 12 months in particular have been especially exciting!
Running has always been a huge part of Kate’s life – we even managed to find some action shots of Kate competing in a St Stephen’s triathlon in 2008! She told us, “I would often go for a 5 kilometre run before school and always looked forward to school cross country. I spent most of my teenage years and mid-twenties focussed heavily on triathlon, competing internationally including the Hawaiian Ironman in 2016.”
Once she graduated from St Stephen’s, Kate completed a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, went on to the graduate program at Princess Margaret Hospital and then worked as a nurse across the state.
“I’ve worked in metro and country hospitals, including a three-year stint at Onslow Hospital in the Pilbara when we moved there for my husband’s work. It was such a brilliant experience!”
Back in Perth, life is incredibly busy for Kate, although after becoming a mum the training hours required to be a competitive triathlete became unmanageable, so she chose to focus purely on running marathons.
“I’m currently working as a Clinical Nurse in the Complex Care unit at the Perth Children’s Hospital and am mum to two kids who are five and two years old. My husband and I also run a small business called Odysseus Crayloops selling a device which divers use to catch crayfish and I train as an elite runner once or twice a day, seven days per week”.
Fortunately, Kate’s family are extremely supportive of her running ambitions.
“The past 18 months have been spent heavily focused on my passion for running. I am fortunate that my family support my running endeavours and I can work part time to allow me to train and recover for races. I’ve always been very passionate about running but have really focused on developing my potential over the past few years.
Kate has experienced a great deal of success in her running career since graduating, but the last 12 months have been incredible!
“I’ve had a few really successful races over the last 12 months, including winning the Rottnest Marathon and breaking a 29-year-old female record. Most recently I have returned from racing the National Marathon Championships held at the Sydney Marathon where I set a new personal best marathon time as well as placing twelfth female overall and third Australian amongst the strongest international marathon field ever assembled in an Australian race”.
“I love to race! There is nothing more enjoyable than spending months training hard and then putting all that work into a big race, on a big stage and seeing your effort come to fruition”.
It’s hard to believe that Kate has any spare time but when she’s not working or training, she and her husband enjoy the outdoors.
“I love taking the kids down to the beach and drinking coffee in the sunshine with my husband or taking the boat to Rottnest and spending as much time on holidays as we can!
Main photo thanks to Athletics West.