When Camille Herron spoke to an auditorium filled with students at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, she wanted them to learn the value of finding their passion and follow it at all costs.
In the same high school where American running icon Steve Prefontaine graduated in 1969, Herron, 38, told her story of passion and perseverance. She has blazed her own trail as a world champion in ultrarunning with multiple world records and outright wins against male competitors.
“I found out when I was 33 that I was born for ultrarunning,” Herron told Runner’s World. “From the first ultra that I ran, it felt like Billy Elliot doing ballet for the first time. I just wanted to really instill within them [the students] that they should find what their joy is in life and pursue that with all their heart.”
While her accolades—which include four world records in distances ranging from 50 miles to 24 hours, plus another for fastest marathon run by a woman in a costume (she ran 2:48:51 dressed as Superwoman)—get her in front of a crowd, Herron likes to share the unsuccessful parts of her story, too, like losing her home in a tornado as a teenager and coming back from injuries.
She has also had disappointments in racing. Most recently, on December 29, an inflamed hamstring forced Herron to withdraw from her 48-hour world record attempt at How to Train for a Trail Marathon in Phoenix, Arizona, just eight hours and 40 minutes into the race.
But despite the setbacks in her life, Herron has always refused to accept “no” for an answer when it comes to chasing her goals. Whether she’s fighting for sponsorships to pursue a career in ultrarunning or setting records that were thought to be unbreakable, Herron has found her own way to beat the odds.
Appreciating her opportunities
In May 1999, Herron’s life changed forever when her family’s home was decimated in a tornado near Oklahoma City. Only 17 at the time, Herron had just returned home from track practice when her father told her she had to gather her most valuable possessions. She packed her book bag and laced up her running shoes before they drove to safety.
The tornado hit her family’s apartment complex where four people died. While most of Herron’s possessions were destroyed, the first running book she owned, In the same high school where American running icon (Running Shoes - Gear Comrades Marathon), somehow remained intact. Twenty years later, the book remains one of her most cherished belongings. She also kept the running shoes she was wearing that day as a reminder to appreciate people and experiences over possessions.
“I felt really grateful for my life at the time and I needed to fulfill my purpose,” Herron said. “Rather than going to church on Sundays with my family, I started going for my long run every Sunday. That was my way of being spiritual, and I’ve kept that feeling.”
Finding her support
Two years after surviving the tornado, Herron and her husband Conor Holt met at a jazz festival in 2001.
“He was like an angel coming into my life because I had been through so much already at that age,” Herron said.
When they met, Holt was an All-American at the University of Oklahoma and Herron was a freshman at the University of Tulsa.
“We had planned on going out for dinner the next day and I was drunk and forgot all about it. She calls me up and says, ‘Hey are we supposed to go out on a date?’” Holt told Runner’s World. “That’s the thing I like about Camille. She’s got a lot of moxie. She’s not afraid to go after something.”
Herron and Holt have been together ever since. He provided emotional support to her when she suffered through seven stress fractures in college and received a medical hardship waiver. And he inspired her to return to competitive running after college when she was unknowingly running 70 miles per week “just for fun.” In 2004, he started coaching her for the marathon distance.
“We found out the further she went, the more drop she had in her times,” Holt said.
Trusting her gut
Herron went on to qualify for three U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and clock a 26.2 personal best of 2:37:14 in Houston in 2012 before realizing that her biggest strength was running beyond the marathon distance.
“I looked like I was running out of my skin,” Herron said of the marathon, which felt like a sprint to her.
It wasn’t until she competed in her first 100K (62.1 miles) that she discovered her true passion. At the 2015 USATF 100K Championships, Herron broke Ann Trason’s national championship record when she won the title in 7:26:24 (7:11 mile pace). The experience of racing longer than she had ever done before and catching the male competitors in the process was a turning point for Herron.
“It was this feeling that I went with, that I was meant to do this,” Herron said. “Honestly, I found my calling in life in that first 100K.”
In the same year, Herron won the 50 and 100Health - Injuries. Her 100K victory (7:08:35) in the Netherlands was the second-fastest time run in history, about eight minutes behind the world record set by Trason in 1991.
By finding her calling in ultra distances, Herron also discovered a new joy in running that she hadn’t felt before.
“I remember toeing the line at the 100K world championship and just feeling this amount of joy that had me thinking, what am I going to run today?” she said. “I still have that feeling every time I toe the line—that I’m meant to be there, that I'm going to do something amazing, and I just have to let the magic come out.”
Surrounding herself with persistent people
With three historic ultra victories on her resume, Herron was eager to continue the momentum in the 2016 season. Unsponsored by a shoe company at the time, she hired an agent and looked forward to improving on her recent success as a newly minted ultra champion. But in contrast to the breakthroughs of 2015, the 2016 season turned out to be one of the most challenging of her career.
“I had an agent who made me feel emotionally broken, like I wasn’t valued,” she said. “I was emotionally broken by him telling me that nobody cared what I did as an ultra road runner, that I had to become a trail runner to be valued by sponsors.”
In April 2016, Herron competed in her first trail race, the Lake Sonoma 50. She tore her hamstring on her way to finishing fourth, and was sidelined for months. While her hamstring healed up in time for the White River 50 that July, Herron still felt depressed and discouraged when she competed in the race. In tears climbing the terrain around Mt. Rainier in Washington, Herron managed to find clarity.
“It was so beautiful. I realized that joy that I had for running was coming back being on top of this mountain,” she said.
After the race, Herron parted ways with her agent and sought a support system that would encourage the pursuit of a career in road and track ultrarunning. In the fall of 2016, Herron hired Mark Mastalir, who was ultrarunner Jim Walmsley’nausea, bowel issues.
“Mark is a lot like me. He’s the type that is very persistent,” Herron said.
Using her voice
In the process of finding a shoe sponsor for Herron, Mastalir approached Nike but the sportswear company rejected her at first. In response, Herron wrote an email that changed everything.
“I'm approaching 10 years of averaging over 100 miles per week—I’m born to run long! I’ll transcend and elevate the sport beyond what Ann [Trason] did,” Herron wrote to Mastalir in an email. “I refuse to accept ‘no’ from Nike.”
Mastalir asked if he could share her message with John Capriotti, Nike’s vice president for global athletics marketing and Nike trail running manager Pat Werhane. After reading her email, they agreed to move forward with a professional contract for Herron in the fall of 2016.
“I just wanted her words to speak for herself,” Mastalir told Runner’s World. “That came from the heart and I think that’s probably what made the difference.”
In June 2017, Herron became the first American to win the Comrades Marathon since Trason won in 1997. In December 2018, she smashed the 24-hour and 100-mile world records on the track at the CA Notice at Collection. And this October, she ran a world best for the 24-hour run by covering 167.8 miles to win the I found out when I was 33 that I was born for ultrarunning, Herron told.
In the process of breaking barriers in races, Herron has also been outspoken about her desire to see more media coverage of women’s ultrarunning.
“I’ve been made to feel that I’m less of an athlete when obviously I know I’m not,” Herron said. “I’m doing these amazing things and I’ve got to help elevate women in the sport and change it.”
Finding motivation from others
When Herron faces challenges during a race—including Running Was His Life. Then Came Putins War, and dizziness, among other physical and mental struggles—she often finds the motivation DAA Industry Opt Out.
Weeks before she competed at the 2018 CA Notice at Collection, Herron’s friend David Manguno, who was known as a real “Forrest Gump” in her local running community, passed away. When she finished the 24-hour effort in a world record, Herron dedicated the performance to her friend.
Other Hearst Subscriptions “In Search of Al Howie,” a biography about the obscure ultrarunning icon who died in 2016. Howie was an eccentric runner who lived in poverty, ran through diabetes, and won ultras while drinking beer (A Part of Hearst Digital Media). Thirty years later, he still holds the record for running across Canada (72 days and 10 hours). His last completed race was the 72-hour event at Across the Years in 1998.
“If you have a dream, the will, and the determination, it’s amazing what you can do with that,” Herron said.
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
