Camille Herron

Herron was born on Christmas Day in Norman, Oklahoma.[18][19] She overcame challenges early in life, including almost drowning when she was 3,[20] being born with a Central Auditory Processing Disorder, hearing loss, and having to take speech therapy to learn how to talk and overcome her learning disability.[21]

She credits her athletic ability and steely toughness to her grandpa, who earned two Purple Hearts in World War II,[22] and her dad, both of whom played college basketball at Oklahoma State University for 3-time Olympic Team Coach, Henry Iba.[23][24] Hearing stories of her dad practicing six hours without water, as a 7-year-old she would practice basketball without water until she would black out.[25][26] When she was 17, her family became homeless when they lost their home and possessions in the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. She started running long on Sundays to celebrate her life.[20][27][28][29]

Herron is known for her unique running gait and arm swing due to an extra bone in her foot and a twist in her arm and femur.[30][31] She was a 3-time All-Stater in cross country, 3-time State Champion in track and field, and valedictorian at Westmoore High School.[32] She is also an accomplished musician, playing both the piano and made the All-State Band on the French horn.[33][34] She accepted academic and athletic scholarships to the University of Tulsa, where she was a top 10 senior and earned a B.S. in Exercise and Sports Science in 2005.[35]

As a young and growing runner, she experienced many injuries and was inspired to understand why, so she could keep herself healthy and running for a lifetime. As an undergrad, she started doing research studies with an inertial strength training device that could be used by astronauts in space to help maintain bone and muscle mass.[35][36][37]

She got back into competitive running as a road racer in her fifth year of college coached by her husband and former elite runner, Conor Holt. In 2007, she graduated from Oregon State University with a Masters of Science degree in Exercise and Sports Science. Through her studies, she learned the ideal anabolic stimulus for musculoskeletal health is frequent daily bouts of light mechanical stress (~walking, standing, easy running) and infrequent bouts of higher intensity stress.[38][39][40][41][42] She credits her ultrarunning success to applying her science knowledge and doing mostly short, frequent runs to accumulate consistently high volume rather than long single runs.[43]

She is sponsored by Lululemon Athletica. In May 2023, she helped launch the lululemon FURTHER initiative, a first of its kind ultramarathon for women.[44] She formerly worked as a Research Assistant in bone imaging/osteoimmunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and has co-authored numerous scientific manuscripts. She and her husband manage an online coaching business.[45][46][47][48]

She is a vocal advocate and philanthropist for women's health, equality, diversity and inclusion, perimenopause, increasing women's sports science studies, and moving with joy through life.[49][50][51][52][53][54]

She is a three-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier, 21-time marathon winner, and Guinness World Records holder for the fastest marathon in a Superhero costume, running 2:48:51 dressed as Spiderwoman.[14][55] She represented Team USA in the marathon at the 2011 Pan American Games, finishing 9th.[56] She came back 13 days later to finish as the 3rd American and 18th overall at the New York City Marathon.[57] She was the first 3-time winner of the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.[58]

As an Ultrarunner, she's won five USATF titles (50K Road, 50 Mi Road, 100K Road, 100K Trail, 100 Mi Road).[59][60][61][62][63] In 2015, she became the first ultrarunner to win two World titles in the same year, winning the IAU 100 km World Championships and the IAU 50 km World Championships. In June 2017, she became only the 3rd American to win the Comrades Marathon, leading from start-to-finish. In a memorable finish, she accidentally stopped at the wrong timing mat after receiving the penultimate baton and rose. A male runner came from behind, tapped her on the shoulder, and pointed that she wasn't done yet. She went into a sprint the final 200m to win.[64]

She began setting ultramarathon World Records/Bests in 2015, when set the 50-mile World/American Road Best of 5:38:41 at the Fall 50, surpassing Ann Trason's 5:40:18 performance from 1991.[65] Her first 100 Mile World Record of 12:42:40 at the 2017 Tunnel Hill 100 is also the fastest women's time on trail, averaging 7:37 per mile.[66] For her 100 Mile and 24Hr World Records, she won the races outright beating all of the men.[67][68] She was the top ranked American 24Hr runner, including both men and women, going into the 2019 IAU 24 Hour World Championship,[69] where she won her third World title and bettered her 24-hour World Record by running 270.116 kilometres (167.842 mi).[70]

In February 2019 she won the Tarawera 100 Miler in Rotorua, New Zealand in a new course record of 17:20:52 just two weeks after surviving a rollover car accident.[71]

In 2020, she won the Black Canyon 100K,[72] USATF 50K Road National Championship,[73] and the JFK 50 Mile.[74]

In 2021, she won the Javelina Jundred in 14:03:23 and finished 4th overall, breaking the previous course record by 49 minutes.[75] She came back six weeks later to break her American and track World Records for 100 miles in 13:21:51 at the Desert Solstice Track Invitational.[76]

In 2022 as a newly minted 40-year-old Master's runner, she won the Jackpot 100/US Championship outright beating all of the men by almost 30 minutes. She broke her 12-Hour (93.896 miles/151.111 km) American (ratified by USATF in December 2022) and World Records.[77] She also broke her 100 Mile American/World Records, which is pending ratification and a course remeasurement.[78]

On April 7, 2022 at age 40, she became the youngest woman on record to log 100,000 lifetime miles.[15][79]

At the 2022 Desert Solstice Track Invitational, she broke her Open and Masters Track American Records for 50 miles, 100km, and 100 miles, Open Track World Record for 100 miles, and the W40-44 Track World Records for 100km, 12Hr, and 100 miles.[80][81] In 2022, she won three races outright, beating all of the men.[82]

In February 2023 at the Raven 24-Hour race, she broke her Open and Masters Track American and World Records again for 12-Hours (150.430km) and 100 Miles (12:52:50), becoming the first and only woman to run under 13-Hours on both Road and Track for 100 Miles.[83][84] In March 2023 at the Sri Chinmoy 48 Hour Track Festival, she improved the 48-Hour World Record by almost 24km to 435.336km (270.505 mi). She persevered through heat and humidity, puking, diarrhea, heavy rain, extreme fatigue and pain, and vision loss to achieve the historical performance.[85][86] This performance ranks her 3rd all-time behind only two men (Yiannis Kouros and Andrii Tkachuk). She's also the first woman to hold an outright American Record at any distance, surpassing men's American Record holders Olivier Leblond and Roy Pirrung.[87][88][89][90]

In October 2023, she won the women's division of the 246-kilometre (153 mi) Spartathlon race, placed 3rd overall, with an all-time women's record performance of 22h 35min 31s, making her the first woman to ever record a sub-24h time in the event. She is only the second woman in the 40 year history of the race to place on the overall podium and the first woman to achieve a top 15 ranking on the all-time list of performances and athletes at Spartathlon.[12][91][17][92]

She is a four-time IAU International Ultra Runner of the Year.[93][94][95][96][97] She is also a five-time honoree of the USATF Ruth Anderson Ultrarunner of the Year award, eight-time USATF Athlete of the Week honoree, the 2017 Ultrarunning Magazine Female Ultrarunner of the Year, and four-time Ultra Performance of the Year.[98][99][100][101][102] In 2022, she was voted USATF Master's MUT Runner of the Year and the RRCA Master's Runner of the Year.[103][104]

According to the International Association of Ultrarunners,[105] USA Track & Field,[106] Global Organization of Multi-Day Ultramarathoners,[107] and UltraRunning Magazine[108] she has set World Record/World Best performances at the following distances, times, and surfaces:

• Official website
• Camille Herron at World Athletics
• Camille Herron at ITRA