Camille Herron



WWW camilleherron.com

Early life and education

Herron was born in Norman, Oklahoma. She was born with impaired hearing, and experienced a near-drowning incident at the age of three. She was later diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder, and has stated that she did not speak much as a child.
She began running in seventh grade, the year after the release of Forrest Gump. She has said she was able to relate to Forrest Gump, not only because of the running. Over the years her husband noticed autistic traits, and through talking to a friend in Oklahoma and taking online tests, she pursued testing for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In 2024 she was officially diagnosed with both. Herron's unusual running gait and arm swing are attributed to an extra bone in her foot and twists in her arm and femur.
She attended Westmoore High School in Oklahoma City, where she was a three-time all-state recipient in cross country, a three-time state champion in track and field, and valedictorian.
When Herron was 19, she and her family lost their home and possessions during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. She has cited that event as a turning point in her life, motivating her to run longer distances on Sundays "to celebrate life".
After receiving academic and athletic scholarships, Herron attended the University of Tulsa, where she was a Top 10 Senior and earned a bachelor's degree in Exercise and Sports Science in 2005. While at college, she began scientific research into the reasons behind the stress fractures she had experienced as a young runner.
Herron obtained a masters degree in Exercise and Sports Science from Oregon State University in 2007. Her research focused on identifying the optimal anabolic stimulus for musculoskeletal health, emphasizing the importance of frequent light mechanical stress interspersed with infrequent high-intensity stress.

Career

Herron returned to competitive running as a road racer under the guidance of her husband, Conor Holt, a former elite runner and college coach. She attributes her success in ultrarunning to her scientific knowledge and training approach, which prioritizes short, frequent runs to accumulate high volume consistently.
Herron has worked as a research assistant in bone imaging and osteoimmunology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, co-authoring several scientific papers.
Herron was partnered with Lululemon Athletica, with whom she collaborated on product development and initiatives such as the launch of a women's trail shoe and the lululemon FURTHER program, which included a six-day ultramarathon for women in March 2024. On September 26, 2024, Lululemon ended its association with Herron, after multiple user accounts were found to be inappropriately removing positive information about other athletes from Wikipedia while adding positive information about Herron.
Herron coaches athletes and offers coaching through an online coaching program.

Notable achievements

  • Herron is a three-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier and a 21-time marathon winner.
  • She competed on the 2011 US Pan American Team in the marathon, finishing 9th.
  • Herron set the Guinness World Record for the fastest marathon by a woman in a superhero costume, completing it in 2 hours, 48 minutes, and 51 seconds, dressed as Spiderwoman.
  • In 2017, she became the third American to win the Comrades Marathon.
  • Herron is the only athlete to win all of the IAU Ultra Road World Championships.
  • Since 2015, she has set multiple Ultramarathon world and American records/bests between 50 miles and 6 days.
  • In February 2022, she won the Jackpot 100/US 100 Mile Championship outright in 12:41:10.
  • In April 2022, she became the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime running miles.
  • In May 2022, she won the Strolling Jim 40 Miler overall, beating the men and setting a new women's course record.
  • In 2023, she improved the women's 48Hr world record by 14.8 miles to 270.505 miles, the third-best performance in the world behind only two men. She is the first woman to hold an outright American record.
  • In 2023, Herron became the first woman to break 24 hours at the 153-mile Spartathlon, setting a course record of 22h 35min 31s. She is the first athlete to win both the Comrades Marathon and Spartathlon.
  • In March 2024, she set records between 48 hours and 6 days, including 12 World Records. She broke the 33-year-old 6-day world record set by Sandy Barwick in 1990.
  • Herron has achieved success in trail running as well, with wins at various races including the JFK 50 Mile, Bandera 100 km, Black Canyon 100 km, Tunnel Hill 100, Tarawera Ultramarathon 100 km and 100 miles, and the Javelina Jundred. She won the Tarawera 100 Miler in a new course record of 17:20:52 two weeks after surviving a rollover car accident.
  • She is a four-time IAU International Ultra Runner of the Year. She is also a six-time honoree of the USA Track & Field Ruth Anderson Ultrarunner of the Year award, nine-time USATF Athlete of the Week honoree, the 2017 Ultrarunning Magazine Female Ultrarunner of the Year, and multiple Ultra Performance of the Year. In 2022 and 2023, she was voted USATF Master's Runner of the Year and the 2022 RRCA Master's Runner of the Year.
  • In 2024, she was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Distance Running Hall of Fame.

World records and best performances

Camille Herron has set multiple Guinness World Records, IAU World Records, and World Best Performances during her career between the marathon and 6 days.
Herron’s current or former records and bests are listed by surface, in line with World Athletics, whose rules maintain performances recorded separately by surface type.
EventTime
Result		PlaceMeetingDateNotes
Marathon 2:48:51Tulsa, OklahomaRoute 66 marathon18 November 2012Guinness World Records- fastest marathon in superhero costume
50 miles5:38:41Sturgeon Bay, WisconsinFall 50 USATFChampionship24 October 2015Former World Best
12-hour run 150.430 km Mount Pleasant, South CarolinaRaven 24-hour run18 February 2023World Record
12-hour run 151.111 km Las VegasJackpot 100 USATF Championship20 February 2022Former IAU World record
100 miles 12:41:11Las VegasJackpot 100 USATF Championship20 February 2022IAU World Record
100 miles12:52:50Mount Pleasant, South CarolinaRaven 24-hour run18 February 2023IAU World record W40–44 age-group
100 miles 12:42:40Vienna, IllinoisTunnel Hill State Trail race11 November 2017IAU World record awaiting ratification
[24-hour run">International Association of Ultrarunners">IAU World record awaiting ratification
[24-hour run 270.116 km Albi, FranceIAU 24 Hour World Championship27-28 October 2019Former IAU World record
24-hour run 263.004 km TaipeiSoochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon30-1 November-December 2024IAU World record W40–44 age-group
48-hour run 435.336 km CanberraSri Chinmoy 48 Hour Track Festival24-26 April 2023Former IAU World record, IAU World Record W40-44 age group
200 miles33:35:31CanberraSri Chinmoy 48 Hour Track Festival24-26 April 2023World record
300 km 31:07:32CanberraSri Chinmoy 48 Hour Track Festival24-26 April 2023World record
400 km 43:44:14CanberraSri Chinmoy 48 Hour Track Festival24-26 April 2023World record
300 miles 2 d 11:54:28Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
400 miles 3 d 16:34:26Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
500 miles 4 d 22:19:17Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
500 km 2 d 14:50:17Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
600 km 3 d 09:23:38Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
700 km 4 d 02:33:59Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
72-hour run 550.542 km Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
4-day run 691.755 km Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
5-day run 807.494 km Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024World record
6 Day Race 901.768 km Palm Springs, Californialululemon FURTHER 6 Day Race6-12 March 2024IAU World Best