Camille Herron

Jacquelyn Camille Herron is an American ultramarathon runner.^[1][2] She has achieved 12 world records in ultramarathon distances.^[3]

Herron was born in Norman, Oklahoma. 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.^[4]

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. She began doing scientific research in college to understand why she had stress fractures as a young runner.^[2][5]

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.^[6][7]

Herron was born with hearing loss and had a near-drowning incident at the age of three.^[8] She was later diagnosed with central auditory processing disorder, and says she did not speak much as a child. She began running in seventh grade, the year after Forrest Gump (1994) was released. She recalls relating to Forrest Gump, not just 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.^[9]

Herron's unusual running gait and arm swing are attributed to an extra bone in her foot and twists in her arm and femur.^[10][11]

Herron, then age 19, and her family lost their home and possessions during the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak. She stated that she found the event to be a turning point and began running longer distances on Sundays to celebrate life.^[12]

Herron returned to competitive running as a road racer under the guidance of her husband, Conor Holt, a former elite runner and college coach.^[8] She attributes her success in ultrarunning to her scientific knowledge and training approach, which prioritizes short, frequent runs to accumulate high volume consistently.^[5]

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.^[13]

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.^[14][15][16] On September 26, 2024, Lululemon ended its association with Herron^[17] after multiple user accounts were found to be inappropriately removing positive information about other athletes from Wikipedia while adding positive information about Herron.^[18][19]

Herron coaches athletes and offers coaching through an online coaching program.^[20]

• Herron is a three-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier and a 21-time marathon winner.^[21]
• She competed on the 2011 US Pan American Team in the marathon, finishing 9th.^[22]
• 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.^[23]
• In 2017, she became the third American to win the Comrades Marathon.^[24]
• Herron is the only athlete to win all of the IAU Ultra Road World Championships (50 km, 100 km, and 24hrs).^[25]
• Since 2015, she has set multiple Ultramarathon world and American records/bests between 50 miles and 6 days.^[26][3][27]
• In February 2022, she won the Jackpot 100/US 100 Mile Championship outright in 12:41:10.^[28]
• In April 2022, she became the youngest woman to reach 100,000 lifetime running miles.^[29][30][31]
• In May 2022, she won the Strolling Jim 40 Miler overall, beating the men and setting a new women's course record.^[32]
• In 2023, she improved the women's 48Hr world record by 14.8 miles to 270.505 miles (435.336 km), the third-best performance in the world behind only two men. She is the first woman to hold an outright American record.^[33][34]
• 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.^[35][36]
• 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.^[37]
• Herron has achieved success in trail running as well, with wins at various races including the JFK 50 Mile,^[38] Bandera 100 km, Black Canyon 100 km,^[39] Tunnel Hill 100,^[40] Tarawera Ultramarathon 100 km ^[41] and 100 miles, and the Javelina Jundred.^[42] She won the Tarawera 100 Miler in a new course record of 17:20:52 two weeks after surviving a rollover car accident.^[43]
• She is a four-time IAU International Ultra Runner of the Year.^[44] She is also a six-time honoree of the USA Track & Field Ruth Anderson Ultrarunner of the Year award,^[45] nine-time USATF Athlete of the Week honoree,^{[46][47][48][49]} the 2017 Ultrarunning Magazine Female Ultrarunner of the Year,^[50] and multiple Ultra Performance of the Year.^{[51][52][53][54][55]} In 2022 and 2023, she was voted USATF Master's Runner of the Year and the 2022 RRCA Master's Runner of the Year.^[51][56][57]
• In 2024, she was inducted into the Road Runners Club of America Distance Running Hall of Fame.^[58][59]

Camille Herron has set multiple Guinness World Records,^[60] IAU World Records,^[26] and World Best Performances^[27] during her career between the marathon and 6 days.^[61][3]

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 (road, track, indoors).^[62][63]

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