Camille Herron Runs World Best for 24-Hour Run With 168-Mile Performance – runnersworld.com

• Camille Herron won the women’s race at the International Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship on Sunday with a world-best performance of 167.842 miles, finishing 16K ahead of the second-place finisher, Nele Alder-Baerens of Germany.
• Her performance helped secure an overall victory for Team USA, who beat out Poland for the title.
• Last year, Herron broke the world record for the 24-hour run on the track.

With her performance in Albi, France, on Sunday, ultrarunner Camille Herron came back strong after a hamstring injury forced her to drop out from Western States in June: She achieved a world best for the most distance covered in 24 hours on her way to winning the International Association of Ultrarunners 24-Hour World Championship.

Herron, 37, completed the challenge by running 270.116K (167.842 miles) in a span of 24 hours on a series of 1500-meter loops in and around the Terrain Honneur Stadium. Pending ratification, the ultrarunner’s performance is the record for the most distance covered in a day for women.

Less than a year ago, Herron broke the world record for the 24-hour run on the track, which made her the favorite heading into Sunday’s race. She established herself up front early on, taking the lead in the first lap and maintaining her top position for the entire race.

Around the halfway point, she almost caught men’s race leader Aleksandr Sorokin of Lithuania, according to the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU).

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After a grueling 24 hours, Herron finally ended her run more than 16K ahead of runner-up Nele Alder-Baerens of Germany (254.288K). Patrycja Bereznowska of Poland followed for third overall in 247.724K.

Herron averaged 8:34-mile pace for the winning effort.

Herron’s win contributed to a dominant team victory for the American women. Team USA covered 746.132K for first place, well ahead of Poland (721.124K) and Germany (696.846K) thanks to Herron’s first place, a fourth-place finish from Pam Smith (246.29K), and a 12th-place showing from Courtney Dauwalter (229.727K).

“It was very hard fought,” Herron told IRun4Ultra afterwards. “Everybody on the team fought for that one. We fought with valor because many of our teammates had body issues, and it all came down to the three of us that were able to dig really deep to score for us. For me, it was puke and rally. I puked twice and I had to dig really deep that last two and a half hours because I wanted to go as high as I could.”

Team USA also won the men’s race with a total distance of 799.754K to beat runner-up Hungary (782.241K). Olivier Leblond led the squad with a third-place finish by running 275.485K.

Sunday’s race improves on Herron’s previous best performance of 162.9 miles in 24 hours, which she achieved entirely on the track for the Desert Solstice Invitational in December 2018. In the process, she also set a new 100-mile world record on the track when she passed the 100-mile mark in 13:25. During last year’s race, she averaged an 8:40 pace.

Less than two months after winning Desert Solstice, Herron survived a serious car crash, but came back to racing less than two weeks later to shatter the course record of the Tarawera 100-Mile Endurance Run in New Zealand on February 8.

Taylor Dutch is a freelance writer living in Chicago.